The Boston College
Chronicle
Iraq: Five Years On
Members of the Boston College community have traveled far and wide since the Iraq
War began in March of 2003; some journeys have been those of the mind and soul
March 2003 to March 2008. Five years.
In that span, an entire class began and ended its undergraduate studies at Boston College;
another class will do so less than two months from now. Nearly 150 administrators, faculty
and staff members officially retired from BC during that period.
The five years also demarcates the length of time since the United States invaded Iraq, a
milestone that formally passed earlier this month — March 19, 2003, was the date the invasion actually began — and prompted a variety of reactions in the US: protests on the part of
those opposed to the war; affirmation for continuing the battle from those supporting it; grief
and remembrance for the slain from their family and friends; and, most of all, reflection on
the war’s past, and speculation on how, and when, it might end.
As the fifth anniversary of the war neared, Boston College Chronicle sought out several individuals — most of whom have appeared in these pages in relation to the Iraq War — for
their thoughts on the conflict, and how it has touched them.
Laura Sanchez Cross, ’04, and her husband Ben Cross, ’03, in Iraq. Both are graduates of the BC ROTC program.
The war in Iraq has affected
few in the Boston College community as personally as Laura
Sanchez Cross, a 2004 graduate
who is currently a captain in the
United States Army.
Not only has Cross served in
the ongoing Middle East conflict
– she was a battalion intelligence
officer and company executive
officer with the Army’s 4th Infantry Division in Baghdad from
November, 2005 through December, 2006 – she is married to
another Army officer and fellow
BC ROTC grad, Captain Ben
Cross, ’03, who was badly wounded in the fighting.
When interviewed by Chronicle
at the outbreak of the war in 2003,
Cross – then a junior majoring
in communications and international studies – noted that her
involvement in the Army ROTC
program was “Sometimes like a
sports team, when it seems like all
you do is practice and never get a
chance to play. You want to show
what you have trained for.”
Now, speaking from her cur-
Campus Ministry held a prayer service in the Quad on March 19, 2003,
hours before the Iraq War began. (File photo by Lee Pellegrini)
INSIDE:
Senior curates MFA show on
calligraphy (page 4)
rent assignment with the 4th
Infantry Division at Fort Hood,
Tex., she says she wouldn’t make
any changes in what she is doing
for her country.
“What I have learned in my
short, four-year Army career is
instrumental,” she says. “At the
age of 25, I was second in command and led more than 80
soldiers in combat. I have been
responsible for over $80 million
of equipment. I have been in life
and death situations. I have traveled the world. And above all,
I have met and served with the
most amazing people.”
Her husband served as an
infantry company commander
with the 4th and was wounded
by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Iraq. He was discharged from active duty last
June and is currently an Army
Reserve officer and ROTC instructor at Tarleton State University in Texas.
“These soldiers truly are heroes,” she says. “They risk their
lives so everyone can have the
freedoms that we all take for
granted on a daily basis.
“I will be the first person to
Continued on page 6
Enthusiasm for ‘Strong Women,
Strong Girls’ program (page 5)
march 27, 2008 -VOL. 16 NO. 14
BC Physicists Achieve
Nanotech Breakthrough
Improved efficiency
could pave way for
‘cleaner’ products
By Ed Hayward
Staff Writer
Prof. Zhifeng Ren (Physics)
and his lab, in collaboration with
researchers at MIT, have used
nanotechnology to achieve a major increase in thermoelectric efficiency, a milestone that paves the
way for a new generation of products — from semiconductors and
air conditioners to car exhaust
systems and solar power technology — that run cleaner.
The team’s low-cost approach,
details of which appear in the
journal Science, involves building
tiny alloy nanostructures that can
serve as micro-coolers and power
generators. The researchers said
that in addition to being inexpensive, their method will likely
result in practical, near-term enhancements to make products
consume less energy or capture
energy that would otherwise be
wasted.
These findings represent a
critical advance in the quest to
harness the thermoelectric effect,
which has both enticed and frustrated scientists since its discovery
in the early 19th century.
The effect refers to certain
materials that can convert heat
into electricity and vice versa.
But there has been a hitch in
trying to exploit the effect: Most
materials that conduct electricity also conduct heat, so their
temperature equalizes quickly. To
improve efficiency, scientists have
sought materials that will conduct electricity but not similarly
conduct heat.
“By using nanotechnology,
we have found a way to improve
an old material by breaking it
up and then rebuilding it in a
composite of nanostructures in
bulk form,” said Ren, a leader
of the two-year project. “This
method is low cost and can be
scaled for mass production. This
represents an exciting opportunity to improve the performance
of thermoelectric materials in a
cost-effective manner.”
In addition to Ren, the BC
team consists of graduate students
Yi Ma, Bo Yu, Xiao Yan, laboratory manager Dezhi Wang, post
Continued on page 3
Former South African
Leader de Klerk to Speak
By Ed Hayward
Staff Writer
Former South African President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient F.W. de Klerk, who helped
his nation make an historic shift
from apartheid to reconciliation,
will deliver the next Clough Colloquium Series lecture on Monday, April 7.
De Klerk will present “Bridging the Gap: Globalization
without Isolation” at 4 p.m. in
Robsham Theater, according to
Associate Dean for Undergraduates Richard Keeley (CSOM),
the director of programs for the
Winston Center for Leadership
and Ethics, which hosts the colloquium series.
“As a former head of state and
the co-architect of the historic
dismantling of apartheid, President de Klerk’s presence offers
our students a rare opportunity
to encounter a leader who has engaged some of the most wrenching issues of our time,” Keeley
said.
De Klerk held the presidency
F.W. de Klerk
at a tumultuous and critical point
in South Africa’s history, as the
nation faced increased international pressure over its policy of
racial separation, or apartheid.
During this period, he initiated
and presided over the negotiations that led to the dismantling
of “apartheid” and the adoption
of South Africa’s first fully democratic constitution in December
1993.
The veteran politician and
Continued on page 3
Heights of Excellence profile:
Gregory Kalscheur, SJ (page 7)
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
march 27, 2008
AROUND
CAMPUS
Opening the portal
Boston College unveiled a new
interface this month for its Agora
Web site, where users in the University community can review or
change employment-related or
personal information, make requests to BC Libraries or Facilities
Management, access Eagle One
Card services and perform other
tasks.
Known as Agora Portal, the
interface — currently in its beta
phase and likely to undergo minor
refinements before final release
— offers users a more attractive
look, easy access to BC Web sites
and the ability to personalize their
pages by adding a mix of internal
BC services or external links to
their favorite Web sites.
“We feel it will be a major improvement over our current Agora
offering,” said Information Technology Project Manager Denis
Walsh. “The current Web-based
Agora environment is based on
older technology and is not able to
provide the level of functionality
found in commercial portals.”
The goal of Agora Portal, Walsh
said, is to provide “a framework of
services and functionality that will
provide an environment that our
users will use as their primary
resource.”
—Office of Public Affairs
Mid-March was a busy time for the Burns
Library: (Top) On March 11, the library
held a reception celebrating the exhibition “Reflections of Ireland: Music and
Landscapes,” which included live music
by local musicians — some of whom, like
pianist Kitty D’Entremont, are featured in
the exhibition.
(Right) On March 17, Burns hosted a
luncheon honoring police officers from
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on a two-week study-visit organized
by the Irish Institute of Boston College
and funded by the US State Department.
Special guests at the event included
Irish Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan,
Northern Ireland Minister of State Paul
Goggins, Garda (Irish national police)
Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and, in
photo, former Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole, ’76, speaking with
Garda Chief Superintendent Kieran Kenny,
center, and Superintendent Con Cadogan.
Frank Curran
Doing the math
The Mathematics Department
last week inaugurated an annual
distinguished lecturer series organizers say is intended to reach
out to the non-mathematically inclined as well as those who work
in the field.
First speaker for the series was
John Horton Conway, holder of
the John von Neumann Chair of
Mathematics at Princeton University, who in addition to his
significant contributions in areas
such as theory of finite groups,
knot theory, number theory, game
theory and coding theory is noted
for his interest in math games:
He is the inventor of the “Game
of Life”, a computer simulation
of simple cellular “life” in which
simple rules give rise to amazingly
Lee Pellegrini
complex behavior.
Conway gave a general-interest talk on March 17 to a packed
house, followed by lectures on
March 18 and 19 that were more
specialized.
“We envision the lecture series
as offering the BC community a
comprehensive series of lectures
from a leading mathematician,”
said Prof. Solomon Friedberg, the
department chairman, “increasing our common awareness of
new developments and ideas in
math and of the relations between
mathematics and other areas of
inquiry.”
Information on lecture titles,
times, and locations is available at
www.bc.edu/schools/cas/math/research/seminars.html.
—SS
Ready for his close-up
When Matt Ryan, ’07, went
through the interview process for
his first job after college, he did it
in front of a gaggle of television
cameras and the observant eyes
of scouts, coaches and front office
types from 22 National Football
League teams.
Ryan, the record-breaking
quarterback for the Boston College football team last fall, went
through his paces in front of the
media and football contingents as
part of BC’s annual “Pro Day” in
Alumni Stadium on March 18,
a yearly exercise in which hopeful NFL prospects from BC and
other area schools can strut their
football stuff.
Projected as one of the top
players chosen in this year’s NFL
draft, Ryan drew the lion’s share
of attention from both the media
and football representatives. He
was asked to throw passes of various distance and direction, replicating the types of throws that a
professional quarterback is routinely asked to make in a game.
He was almost flawless, connecting on 48 of 52 attempts; three of
those incompletions were drops
by receivers.
Ryan, who earned his undergraduate degree from the Carroll
School of Management last May
but remained eligible to play a
final year, threw 31 touchdown
passes in leading BC to an 113 record and a victory in the
Champs Sports Bowl.
Like any first-time job seeker,
Ryan is looking optimistically to
the future. “I’m trying to do everything that I can to be drafted
as high as I can,” he said after last
week’s workout. “Hopefully I will
get to go into a great situation and
have the chance to go in and compete to be a starting quarterback
in the NFL.
“You don’t know who is going
to take who or when or where or
why,” he noted. “But there’s no
sense in worrying about it now.
You just have to work hard and
prepare yourself.”
—RO
Making a splash
Adj. Senior Lect. Bonnie
Rudner (English) and Amelia
Shumeyko, ’08, have found a
double-dose of motivation at the
Flynn Recreation Complex.
Last semester, the two women, along with Caitriona Taylor,
manager of the RecPlex Aquatics
and Instructional Programs, added a component to the facility’s
Swim Incentive Program enabling
faculty, staff and students to swim
laps for their favorite charity.
Through the Swim Incentive
Program, Taylor explains, participants are encouraged to “Swim
the Virgin Islands” or “Swim the
Charles” – or rather, its equivalent of about 80 miles – to make
swimming part of their workout.
When a close friend of Rudner
was diagnosed with breast cancer
last year, her husband, Michael,
proposed a swim-a-thon fundrais-
er. Rudner shared the idea with
a class and one of her students,
Shumeyko, jumped at the opportunity. Between 15 and 20
students are currently “swimming
for a cure,” raising money for the
Susan G. Komen Fund.
Taylor praises Shumeyko for
bringing a service component to
workouts. A scoreboard is updated
at least twice a week, so swimmers
stay motivated in their laps.
“Amelia really ran with this
idea of making the most of people’s personal goals,” says Taylor.
“Setting a physical destination is
a way to increase the sense of accomplishment. Setting the goal
beyond that takes on the new
dimension of a mental goal.”
Adds Rudner, “People can
collect for whatever charity they
want; the important thing is that
we’re in there, swimming and rais-
Eagles Take Hockey East
Title, Begin NCAAs Saturday
The Boston College men’s ice hockey team will make
its sixth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championship Tournament this Saturday when they face the University of Minnesota in a Northeast regional quarterfinal
game at the DCU Center in Worcester. Game time is
7:30 p.m.
Coach Jerry York’s skaters won the bid to compete for
the NCAA title by beating Vermont, 4-0, in the Hockey
East championship game last Saturday night. This is the
10th time in the last 11 years that BC has qualified for the
national championship tournament and the school’s 28th
overall visit to NCAA play.
The winner of the BC-Minnesota game will face the
winner Friday’s other quarterfinal game, Air Force-Miami
of Ohio, on Sunday, with the Worcester winner advancing to the NCAA “Frozen Four” championship rounds in
Denver on April 10-12.
BC brings a 21-11-8 record into the playoffs.
—Reid Oslin
ing money. For me, I can swim
for 30 minutes, that’s it. But however many laps I do in that time is
helping, even in a small way.”
—MB
The Boston College
Chronicle
Director of Public Affairs
Jack Dunn
Deputy Director of
Public AFFAIRS
Patricia Delaney
Editor
Sean Smith
Contributing Staff
Melissa Beecher
Ed Hayward
Reid Oslin
Rosanne Pellegrini
Kathleen Sullivan
Eileen Woodward
Photographers
Gary Gilbert
Lee Pellegrini
The Boston College Chronicle
(USPS 009491), the internal newspaper for faculty and staff, is published
biweekly from September to May by
Boston College, with editorial offices
at the Office of Public Affairs, 14
Mayflower Road, Chestnut Hill, MA
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Electronic editions of the Boston
College Chronicle are available via
the World Wide Web at http://
www.bc.edu/chronicle.
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
March 27, 2008
Lee Pellegrini
Clough Colloquium to
Host de Klerk April 7
Continued from page 1
Prof. Zhifeng Ren (Physics), right, with Bed Poudel, PhD ’07, left, and graduate student Yi Ma.
Nanotechnology Drives Team’s Success
Continued from page 1
doctoral researcher Yucheng Lan,
visiting professor Junming Liu, a
physicist from Nanjing University
in China, and lead author Bed
Poudel, PhD ’07, now a researcher at Newton-based GMZ Energy,
a nanotech energy company of
which Ren is a co-founder. The
MIT researchers included professors Gang Chen and Mildred S.
Dresselhaus.
Using nanotechnology, the
international team produced a
significant increase in the thermoelectric efficiency of bismuth
antimony telluride — a semiconductor alloy that has been commonly used in commercial devices
since the 1950s — in bulk form.
Specifically, the team realized a
40 percent increase in the alloy’s
figure of merit, a term scientists
use to measure a material’s relative
performance.
The achievement marks the
first such gain in a half-century us-
ing the cost-effective material that
functions at room temperatures
and up to 250 degrees Celsius.
The success using the relatively
inexpensive and environmentally
friendly alloy means the discovery
can quickly be applied to a range
of uses, leading to higher cooling
and power generation efficiency.
At its core, thermoelectricity is
the “hot and cool” issue of physics. Heating one end of a wire, for
example, causes electrons to move
to the cooler end, producing an
electric current. In reverse, applying a current to the same wire
will carry heat away from a hot
section to a cool section. Phonons,
a quantum mode of vibration,
play a key role because they are
the primary means by which heat
conduction takes place in insulating solids.
Bismuth antimony telluride
is a material commonly used in
thermoelectric products, and the
researchers crushed it into a nanoscopic dust and then reconstituted it in bulk form, albeit with
nanoscale constituents. The grains
and irregularities of the reconstituted alloy dramatically slowed the
passage of phonons through the
material, radically transforming
the thermoelectric performance
by blocking heat flow while allowing the electrical flow.
Thermoelectric materials have
been used by NASA to generate power for far-away spacecraft.
These materials have been used
by specialty automobile seat makers to keep drivers cool during
the summer. The auto industry
has been experimenting with ways
to use thermoelectric materials to
convert waste heat from a car exhaust systems into electric current
to help power vehicles.
The research was supported by
the Department of Energy and the
National Science Foundation.
Benefit Set to Dance the Night Away This Weekend
By Kathleen Sullivan
Staff Writer
More than 100 Boston College
students will be kicking up their
heels to raise money and awareness for Franciscan Hospital for
Children at the sixth annual Boston College Dance Marathon, set
for this Saturday, March 29, from
noon until midnight in the Flynn
Recreation Complex.
BC Dance Marathon is a student initiative which has raised a
total of more than $300,000 to
date for the Brighton-based Franciscan Hospital, one of the nation’s
largest pediatric rehabilitation hospitals offering programs and services for children with special health
care needs.
The centerpiece of the event is
the dance-athon. BC students take
pledges and volunteer to stay on
their feet for 12 hours. Cheering
on and motivating the dancers will
be 30 other BC students signed on
as “moralers.”
BC Dance Marathon is open to
members of the BC community.
Admission is $5. Families and staff
associated with Franciscan attend
the event as guests.
BC athletes and the Eagle mascot will be on hand to welcome attendees and Boston College dance
troupes will perform. There also
are a number of raffle prizes up
for grabs at the event, including
Boston Celtics tickets and various restaurant and store gift cards.
The grand prize is a weekend stay
in Boston that comes with two
American Airlines vouchers, hotel accommodations, dinner, a spa
package and admission to the New
England Aquarium and a Duck
Tour.
Some 50 members of the BC
community have volunteered to
serve food and run games and entertainment for the supporters who
attend the event.
The recipient of this charitable
endeavor, Franciscan Hospital, already has a strong relationship with
BC. Each month, about 30 Boston
College student athletes visit children at Franciscan, bringing cheer
and sharing stories. Other BC students who participate in the University’s 4Boston outreach program
volunteer at FHC’s Therapeutic
Recreation Department, serving as
“patient friends” to physically challenged children and adolescents
and are involved in reading, arts
and crafts, and games.
“[Dance Marathon’s] executive
staff has joined the athletes on their
monthly visits to Franciscan and it
has been great to see the kids,” said
Danielle Kidd, ’08, co-executive
director of Boston College Dance
Marathon. “[They] remind us why
we have been working so tirelessly
to raise money and awareness for
FHC. The children truly are amazing and inspirations to us all.”
Kidd has been a volunteer with
Dance Marathon all four of her
undergraduate years and is very
proud of how Dance Marathon
has grown — particularly in terms
of sponsorships.
“We have new partners this
year, such as Honest Tea, Contiki,
Boloco and Starbucks, to go hand
in hand with our established sponsors including, but not limited to,
BC Dining Services, Scion of Weymouth, American Airlines, and the
Boston Red Sox,” said Kidd.
While the marathon event is
the group’s biggest fundraiser, it is
not the only way they financially
support Franciscan. In February,
Dance Marathon partnered with
J. Crew for a shopping event that
raised nearly $3,000 for Franciscan Hospital. All Boston-area J.
Crew stores donated 10 percent of
one weekend’s sales generated from
purchases by Boston College supporters showing a special Dance
Marathon postcard.
For more information about the
Boston College Dance Marathon or
about making a donation, see the
group’s Web site, www.bc.edu/dancemarathon, or call 617-552-0754.
attorney’s leadership earned international recognition. In July
1993, together with former African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, de Klerk received
the Philadelphia Peace Prize, and
in December that year the two
shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
De Klerk, who first won election to the South African Parliament in 1972, was picked to
lead his National Party in 1989.
Following the resignation of President P.W. Botha, de Klerk became acting state president and
was elected to the permanent post
in the fall of 1989.
De Klerk served as president
until May 10, 1994, when Mandela was elected the nation’s first
black president. De Klerk continued to play a significant role
in South African politics, serving as one of South Africa’s two
executive deputy presidents. He
served in this capacity until the
end of June 1996, when his party,
under his leadership, decided to
withdraw from the Government
of National Unity. He was leader
of the Official Opposition until
his retirement from active party
politics in September 1997.
In 1999, de Klerk published
his autobiography, The Last Trek:
A New Beginning, and established
the F. W. de Klerk Foundation,
which is dedicated to the promotion of peace in multi-cultural
societies. De Klerk established the
Global Leadership Foundation in
March 2004. Its objective is to
play a constructive role in the
promotion of peace, democracy,
and development. The organization will help national leaders
who face complex economic and
political challenges by providing
confidential advice, especially but
not exclusively in the developing
world and emerging markets.
The Clough Colloquium Series
recognizes individuals who have
made important contributions as
ethical leaders in their fields and
calls upon them to share what
they have learned on their journey to becoming leaders through
symposia, conferences and public
events.
Prior colloquium speakers include New York Times Publishing
Co. CEO Janet L. Robinson, Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas
Burns ’78, historian David McCullough, and retired US Army
General Anthony Zinni.
The Clough Colloquium Series is made possible through the
generosity of Charles I. Clough,
Jr., ’64 and Gloria Clough CGSON, ’96.
March 13 Emergency Test
Reflects National Average
The first test of the University’s Emergency Notification
System reached approximately
50 percent of its target audience,
mirroring results experienced by
colleges and universities nationwide, BC’s Emergency Management officials reported.
The March 13 test, using the
notification system 3n/Qwest,
sent text messages to more than
14,000 BC students, faculty and
staff who had submitted their
cell phone numbers prior to
March 1.
In an analysis of the test
conducted by BC Information
Technology Services in conjunction with 3n, slightly more than
half of those registered on campus received the text message.
“These numbers are consistent with the first test results at colleges and universities
throughout the country,” said
Vice President for Information
Technology Marian Moore.
“We will continue to analyze
the data and work with the vendor to try to improve the results
moving forward. Clearly, the
vendors need to redouble their
efforts to fulfill the promises
they made when they marketed
these products in the aftermath
of the Virginia Tech tragedy.”
As has been consistently reported by colleges and universities that have utilized emergency notification systems, the
emergency text messages often
go undelivered because the recipients are in an area where the
cell signal is weak or because
they have a prepaid cell plan.
In other cases, the messages go
undelivered because telecommunications companies view large
volumes of text messages coming from internet companies as
spam and will either drop the
messages or, in some cases, deliver them hours later.
“Collectively, colleges and
universities are hoping that
their continued pressure on the
cell phone companies will force
them to solve this problem,” said
Moore.
Moore said BC Information
Technology is in the process of
evaluating competitor vendors,
while continuing to test the 3n
emergency notification system.
“We are working hard to
find the best emergency notification system to complement
the e-mail, Web messaging and
emergency hotline (1-888-BOSCOLL) that the University will
utilize in the event of an emergency,” Moore said.
“The bottom line is that all
of our messaging vehicles will
require BC community members who receive the information
to immediately inform others
around them,” she said. “There
is no perfect system for responding to an emergency. We will
all need to pass the information
on.”
—Jack Dunn
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
march 27, 2008
A Holistic View of Ancient and Modern
Senior’s zeal for Islamic
art parallels efforts to
build interfaith ties
By Kathleen Sullivan
Staff Writer
M. Emily Neumeier, ‘08, right, speaks with a visitor to the Museum of Fine Arts exhibition “Kufic Korans” she curated. “She’s such a serious scholar at such a young age,” says MFA official Woodman Taylor, under whose direction Neumeier worked. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
zontal and stunted vertical pen
strokes that was popular in the
7th-10th centuries. Kufic was the
exclusive script for Koran manuscripts in the early centuries of
Islam and powerful Muslim rulers
would commission Kufic Korans
with gold and silver illumination.
Neumeier says the introduction of paper and books precipitated the decline of Kufic in favor
of scripts that were easier to write
and read, although Kufic has enjoyed periodic revivals by calligraphers and artisans interested in
using its weight symbolically, she
said.
Her work on the exhibition
began more than a year ago when
she shot high resolution photographs of the MFA’s existing but
uncataloged Islamic manuscripts,
then took the photos with her
during her semester abroad and
Cairo and started translating the
text.
Returning to Boston in the
summer, she worked full-time at
the MFA, selecting the objects
for the show, which in addition
to manuscripts includes ceramics,
ceremonial artifacts, costumes and
metalwork. Neumeier researched
and wrote the label text for all 24
items on display, then collaborated with other MFA departments
on aspects such as conservation,
design, framing and mounting.
The exhibition includes accompanying programs such as courses
on Islamic art and a symposium
featuring Koran reciters and Arabic calligraphy demonstrations
[see below].
The exhibition itself as well as a
30 to 40-page research paper will
serve as Neumeier’s A&S Honors
Program thesis.
Since her arrival at BC, Neumeier — whose childhood fascination with museums later inspired
her to work as a junior docent and
summer arts camp counselor at
the Tampa Museum of Art — has
followed her interest in art history
from Egypt to England. While
in Cairo last spring she studied
Arabic and took classes in Ancient
Egyptian art and the Islamic art
of Syria and Egypt. In Spain she
participated in an archeological
excavation of the Roman forum
of ancient Tiermes and in London
she worked on part of the Middle
East Now exhibition at the British
Museum.
But not all of Neumeier’s travels have been arts-related. As a
member of the University’s Episcopal Chaplaincy group, she has
made pilgrimages to Israel and
Kenya with other area college students on trips organized by Bishop
of the Diocese of Massachusetts,
Rt. Rev. Thomas Shaw, SSJE:
“In Israel, we discovered the true
complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and spoke to several
groups advocating for peace, interfaith dialogue, and non-violent
protest.”
Returning from Israel, Neu-
meier felt more effort was needed to confront stereotypes and
misperceptions between persons
of different faiths. She went on to
establish the first college chapter
of the Daughters of Abraham, an
interfaith book club for Muslim,
Jewish, and Christian women devoted to reading and discussing
literature related to these religious
traditions.
“We are a small group of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian women
— faculty, student, or staff at
BC,” said Neumeier. “We emphasize developing relationships,
being respectful, and …[sharing]
personal experiences or impressions of [our] own faith tradition.”
Neumeier, who has a Fulbright application pending for a
post-graduation research project
in Turkey, last year was one of
March 31 ‘Writers Among Us’ Event to
Feature Political Scientist’s New Book
The “Writers Among Us” series will present a talk on March
31 by Prof. Robert Faulkner
(Political Science), who will discuss his new book The Case for
Greatness: Honorable Ambition
and Its Critics.
The event will take place at
7 p.m. in Devlin 008 and is free
and open to the public.
In The Case for Greatness,
Faulkner contends that ambition has become viewed as a
negative trait for leaders, and
qualities such as determination
to excel, good judgment, justice
and a sense of honor are slighted
in many modern accounts of
leadership. In fact, he says, those
qualities are what have distinguished a Franklin D. Roosevelt
or an Abraham Lincoln from
lesser leaders.
Faulkner, offering an attempt
at recovering what he calls “a
reasonable understanding of
Lee Pellegrini
The beautiful Arabic script displayed in the new Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston exhibition on
calligraphy in the world of Islam is
impressive — especially when one
considers that it was organized not
by a professional curator but by a
Boston College student.
M. Emily Neumeier, a BC
senior and Presidential Scholar
majoring in art history, worked
under the direction of Woodman Taylor, Museum of Fine
Arts assistant curator for South
Asian and Islamic Art, to assemble
“Kufic Korans: Calligraphy in the
World of Islam.”
On display in the MFA’s Islamic Corridor through Nov. 2,
the exhibition features objects
“representing a broad range of
time and space — from medieval Spain to modern-day Turkey
— [testifying] to the permeating
force of the word in Islamic art,”
according to the MFA Web site.
“Calligraphy is a vital and
unique part of Islamic art,” explains Neumeier, a Florida native
who also has a minor in Middle
Eastern and Islamic Studies. “In
the Western world, words are
used for information but in the
Islamic world, words are decorative. They have ornamental, as
well as semantic, value.”
Neumeier believes that the only
realistic way to study art history is
holistically. It’s the same approach
she takes to looking at other aspects of life, like religion and faith,
which in turn has spurred her
to become involved in interfaith
activities, such as starting the first
college chapter of a national group
seeking to promote understanding between Christians, Jews and
Muslims.
Her zeal for working in ancient
arts has earned her plaudits from
academics and professionals, including Taylor, who described her
as “incredible” in a recent press
interview: “She’s such a serious
scholar at such a young age.”
Neumeier’s accomplishments
— she was the only undergraduate presenter at a recent University
of South Florida symposium on
medieval manuscripts and early
printed books — are “really impressive,” said her thesis advisor
Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor of Islamic and Asian
Art Sheila Blair. “Most assistant
professors haven’t curated an exhibition at a major museum.
“Emily is a terrific student.
She is unpretentious and downto-earth. She is always ready to
apply what she has learned.”
The most recent, and visible,
example of Neumeier’s scholarship is the MFA exhibition, which
focuses on Kufic, an angular style
of script with pronounced hori-
only 20 recipients nationwide of a
prestigious Beinecke Scholarship,
which provides funds for the graduate education of young men and
women with exceptional promise.
She plans to obtain a doctorate in
art history.
“Emily will make an excellent teacher or museum curator
someday,” said Blair. The need
for greater knowledge and understanding about Islam, particularly
to counter the stereotypes, is very
real, said Blair.
“Islamic art is understudied in
American universities. But Islam
is the world’s fastest growing religion and it is important that more
people understand it and teach
others about it.”
That’s exactly what Emily
Neumeier is already doing.
Information about the “Kufic
Korans” exhibition, including a virtual tour showcasing several pieces,
is available at www.mfa.org/exhibitions/sub.asp?key=15&subkey=5
944.
On March 30, the Museum of
Fine Arts will present a special
program to accompany the exhibition on Islamic calligraphy curated
by M. Emily Neumeier, ’08. From
noon-1:30 p.m. and 2-3:30 p.m.
will be a free writing demonstration
in the MFA Courtyard Gallery held
by master calligraphers Muhammad
Zakariya and Haji Noor Deen.
From 1-2 p.m. in the Remis
Auditorium will “Activating the
Sacred Text in Islam,” a celebration of the living traditions of the
Koran that features an appearance
by Ahmed Tijani Ben Omar, one
of the finest Koran reciters in the
world. Discounted admission is
available to Boston College students
($5, regularly $15) and faculty and
staff ($8, regularly $18) — contact
Bede Bidlack at bidlack@bc.edu for
tickets.
Robert Faulkner
excellence,” examines Aristotle’s
“great-souled man,” the Athenian
politician Alcibiades and the life
of imperial conquerer Cyrus the
Great. He dissects military and
imperial ambition, the art of leadership, and, in the case of George
Washington, ambition in the ser-
vice of popular self-government.
He also addresses modern indictments of even the best forms of
political greatness: in the critical
thinking of Hobbes, the idealism
of Kant, the relativism and brutalism of Nietzsche, or the egalitarianism of Rawls and Arendt.
A faculty member at Boston
College since 1968, Faulkner is
the author of Francis Bacon and
the Project of Progress and The
Jurisprudence of John Marshall,
among other works. A former
Marshall Scholar, he has held fellowships from the Ford, Mellon,
Earhart, and Bradley foundations
and the National Endowment for
the Humanities.
“Writers Among Us,” which
spotlights the work of BC faculty
authors, is sponsored by Boston
College Magazine, the Office of
the Provost and the BC Bookstore. For more information, call
ext.2-4576.
—Office of Public Affairs
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
March 27, 2008
Two Are Honored at
Romero Scholarship Gala
By Melissa Beecher
Staff Writer
Undergraduates Christa Campanella (back to camera), Jessica Chau and Ricquelle Jeffrey (middle, left to right) lead a
recent session of “Strong Women, Strong Girls” at the Winship Elementary School in Boston. (Photos by Lee Pellegrini)
Passing Along Their Strength
BC mentoring program strikes a chord with area schoolchildren
source of concern for elementary
schoolchildren.
Knuth-Bouracee says each child
involved brings a different need or
An after-school mentoring prolevel of interest to the program, but
gram that pairs Boston College stumost quickly become active and
dents with potentially at-risk city
willing participants. “Some girls are
children has expanded to three elvery excited to be in the program
ementary schools in the Brightonand they know a lot about it. OthAllston neighborhood and is earners may need to be in a program
ing high marks from BC volunteers
like this, but are sort of reluctant
as well as school officials.
and feel that it may be just another
The “Strong Women, Strong
after-school activity that they are
Girls” project, which in the past year
being thrown into.
has grown to include 10 BC un“But now, the girls really look
dergraduates mentoring 25 elemenforward to the meetings and the actary school-age girls in the district’s
tivities that they do,” Knuth-BouraGarfield, Hamilton and Winship
cee says. “And it’s great to see that
schools, serves up weekly sessions
the girls are taking what they have
of friendship, life skills training and
learned and using it in all aspects
educational enrichment for the local
of their lives, whether it is in the
children.
classroom or at home.”
“The girls love it and we love
Knuth-Bouracee says the reit,” says Meghan Welsh, Brighton’s
wards for the student mentors may
Hamilton Elementary School site
even surpass the benefits enjoyed by
coordinator for the Boston Contheir young charges. “Even though
nects program, a partnership bethey may not be telling us,
tween Boston College,
‘We love to see you” or
Boston Public Schools
‘You’re great,’ they are reand various communially building a connection
ty agencies. “It’s been
and a relationship with us.
very successful.”
“We are working to
“The feedback that
change the next generawe are getting on this
tion of girls from Boston,”
program has been
Knuth-Bouracee says.
fabulous,” says Maria
The growth and sucDiChiappari, director
cess of the “Strong Womof the Boston College
en, Strong girls” program
Neighborhood Cendoes have one drawback,
ter in Brighton and
according to DiChiappari.
coordinator of BC’s
“Boys are starting to wanchapter of the afterder around the doorways
school mentoring projof the rooms they are in.
ect. “‘Strong Women,
At the Hamilton School
Strong Girls’ has been
they were asking ‘Why
part of our community-building effort. We Winship Elementary School student Alanis Feliz and BC’s Jessica can’t we have a program
for boys, too?’”
get the schools to help Chau talk during the “SWSG” meeting.
It’s a question heard ofrecruit the girls – all
third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, human development major from ten by Lindsay Hyde, who is SWSG
who would really benefit from be- Colleyville, Tex., and a “SWSG” founder and president and executive
volunteer. “The elementary school director of its Boston operation.
ing mentored by college students.”
The “SWSG” project began at students are hopefully learning from “Unfortunately, we just don’t have
BC with a pilot program involving the college women how to com- the expertise to work with boys in a
four volunteers in two Brighton municate effectively and how to be way that is effective. But, if there is
schools in 2006-7. A third school respectful and friendly. They are an organization that was interested
and more than double the number also learning very practical hands-on in working with boys, we would
of BC volunteers were added this skills – things like stress manage- love to talk with them about the
fall to meet the burgeoning interest ment – that hopefully they will model that we use, how it developed
carry on through their own devel- and what some of the key learnings
in the program.
have been for the work that we have
“Generally, the children involved opment.”
One recent topic involved bul- done in engaging college students
are at-risk young girls or girls who
could just use an extra boost by lying, which Knuth-Bouracee says and building the curriculum.”
learning social skills,” DiChiappari is a major problem and significant
By Reid Oslin
Staff Writer
says. “This is the first full year that
we have been doing it and the impact has been really positive.”
Each weekly mentoring session
involves a Boston College female
student spending 90 minutes with
small groups of girls during which
the youngsters choose and discuss
a particular topic of interest, read
biographies of successful women
and then pursue various follow-up
activities.
“The girls are getting the one-toone support that they need,” notes
Welsh, who says that 10 girls at
the Hamilton School are involved
in “SWSG.” “They have become
close to their mentors and have actually developed some pretty good
relationships – something like the
Big Sister program, but with a lot
of other components, too. It’s really
been successful at this school.”
“It’s a great mentoring program,”
adds Lynch School of Education
junior Mari Knuth-Bouracee, a
Student leader Jennifer Castillo,
’09, and community activist Olga
Lattarulo, MSW’95, were recently
honored at the 16th annual Oscar
A. Romero Scholarship awards ceremony.
Castillo, an international studies major, was presented with the
Archbishop Romero Scholarship,
given annually to a junior who
best represents the values and ideals of the late archbishop and social
justice advocate.
Lattarulo received the John A.
Dinneen, SJ, Hispanic Alumni
Community Service Award, named
in honor of the late University
chaplain who helped establish the
Romero Award and was an advocate and supporter of the Latino
community.
Originally from the Dominican Republic, Castillo grew up in
Lawrence, Mass., and has played
an active role in the Hispanic community both in high school and
throughout her years at BC. She
has participated in the Shaw Leadership Program, the Organization
of Latin American Affairs (OLAA),
PULSE and the AHANA Leadership Council. Castillo has studied
in Madrid, taken part in a service
trip to Turkey Creek, Miss., and
mentored high school students.
Castillo plans on attending law
school after graduation and establishing a support center for battered immigrant women, a population she feels is most in need of
assistance.
Ricardo Salinas and Stephanie
Sanabrina were finalists for the
Romero Scholarship, which pays
75 percent of senior-year tuition.
Salinas, who majors in general
management with a concentration
in finance and leadership, was a
co-director of the AHANA Caucus
in 2006 and of the AHANA Leadership Academy in 2007. He also
worked as a resident assistant for
the Boston College Experience, a
summer program that brings high
school students to campus.
Sanabrina, a double major in
human development and Hispanic
studies, has served as town manager and public relations representative for Voices of Imani, and as
Jennifer Castillo, ’09, left, and Olga Lattarulo, MSW’95. (Photo by Ryan Joyce)
historian for the AHANA Leadership Council and host for the
Conexiones, a program organized
through the OLAA.
Dinneen Award winner Lattarulo, a native of Peru, has dedicated
her life to the advancement of the
Peruvian community in America
and her homeland. She is the author of three books and has written
numerous articles in newspapers
and training pamphlets on domestic violence, drugs and alcohol.
Lattarulo has worked as a social
worker for the Salvation Army,
volunteered to help the victims of
Hurricane Andrew in Florida, provided outpatient counseling services with Project Cope and assisted
immigrants at the Peruvian American Community Center (COPEA)
in Everett, where she continues to
serve as president.
After a major earthquake struck
Peru last August, Lattarulo helped
coordinate efforts to raise funds
and collect medicine, food, and
clothing to aid the victims. She
also led a team of medical personnel to Peru, where they provided
aid to more than 1,000 earthquake
victims.
Her previous honors include an
award from Boston Mayor Thomas
Menino and the Peruvian Ambassador to the United States for her
service to the local Peruvian community, a silver medal from the
Peruvian Congress for exceptional
entrepreneurial and humanistic
initiatives, and a citation from the
Massachusetts Senate for her work
with immigrants.
NCAA Self-Study Available for View
Members of the Boston College community will have the opportunity
to review the self-study of the University’s intercollegiate athletic programs
undertaken as part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association certifica­
tion process.
The self-study will be available for review from Monday, March 31 until
Friday, April 18 (when comments are due), at O’Neill Library. During that
period, comments may be sent to bc.ncaa@bc.edu or newtonr@bc.edu.
For those preferring to read summaries of the three sections of the
report, these will be available on the BC Athletic Department Web site at
bceagles.cstv.com/ot/bc-ncaa-self-study.html
Following final revisions and approval by the steering committee
— which is chaired by Special Assistant to the President Robert Newton
— and University President William P. Leahy, SJ, the self-study will be
submitted to the NCAA on May 1.
Information on NCAA certification is available at the BC Athletic Department Web site [bceagles.cstv.com/].
—Office of Public Affairs
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
march 27, 2008
Graduate School of Social Work student Rita Kostiuk at the Quad, where she has
regularly kept vigil during the course of the Iraq War. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
say that I would love for all my
friends to come home and certainly
to bring all of the soldiers home
once and for all. But we all know
that it is more complicated than
that.
“No one should discredit what
a soldier gives up to fight for his
country, no matter what one’s
opinion is on the war,” Cross adds.
“They need to know – we all need
to know – that the American people are standing behind them.”
—Reid Oslin
* * *
Milford, Conn., native Rita
Kostiuk was entering the final
weeks of her freshman year at Boston College on March 19, 2003,
when she experienced one of the
more emotional — and crystallizing — moments of her young life.
She had gathered that day with
other members of the University
community in the Middle Campus
Quad for a prayer service, mere
hours before the war in Iraq began. At one point, Kostiuk — who
hadn’t even been certain she would
be at the service — read aloud
from The Beatitudes, her voice faltering until she reached the passage
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called sons of God.”
Her emotions got the best of her
and she broke down and wept.
That moment seemed to reflect
the turmoil of a generation, raised
in a post-Cold War era of relative
peace and prosperity that had been
dramatically subsumed by 9/11
and other events; the world they
thought they knew appeared increasingly out of control.
But Kostiuk, now a third-year
student in the Graduate School of
Social Work, recalls the event as
illuminating the path in which she
had already begun to travel, one
she said would give her a sense of
mission and a means to overcome
feelings of helplessness.
“The way I found control was
through peace,” says Kostiuk. “I
found I could influence others and
share with others my passion for
peace. In January of 2003 I went
to Washington, DC, to march in
a peace rally. This was a huge moment for me to be surrounded by
people who were on the same page
as me on the war.
“After this rally and subsequent
rallies in Boston I found myself
drawn to gatherings of people who
wanted peace. When the war started in March, I had become a voter
with a purpose.”
One year after the service on the
Quad, Kostiuk had taken a leave
of absence to work with a political
action committee called Music for
America, attending music concerts
to canvass and register young voters.
“At the end of our campaign
we had registered one million new
voters. This was very meaningful
for me because I was able to participate in open dialogues about
the state of our nation and where
we can make a difference.”
Kostiuk also became involved
with BC’s Global Justice Project, and helped start a daily silent
vigil in the Quad, now a weekly
event which remains for Kostiuk
a “meaningful and powerful tradition.”
“I sat in the Quad many times
Lydia Khalil, ’02 (rear, far right), in Baghdad in 2003, while working for the Coalition Provisional Authority. “I’ve learned that good intentions are not enough,”
she says, “and I’ve learned how people vilify those that don’t agree with them.”
by myself, not even noticed by
others, but doing this simple act of
peacefulness fulfilled me,” she says.
“In a world where violence permeates all areas of our lives this ‘time
out’ really helped.”
As a senior, she found her vocation as a social worker and as
an advocate for older adults and
their families, which led her to
enroll in GSSW. She interns at the
Alzheimer’s Association and plans
to seek a public policy-level job in
the geriatric social work field.
“It is going to be a big transition
to leave here,” she says, “but I feel
that I have a strong foundation,
thanks to the Jesuit ideals at BC
that I need to succeed in a world
that has war and hardship. As long
as I keep my head up I continue to
love and care for the people around
me I still have hope for a more
peaceful world.”
—Sean Smith
* * *
On the eve of the five-year anniversary of the War in Iraq, Adj.
Asst. Prof. Paul McNellis, SJ (Philosophy), rose before a standing
room only crowd in Cushing Hall
and reflected on what the United
States owes the Iraqi people.
Lee Pellegrini
Continued from page 1
Iraq: Five Years On
Paul McNellis, SJ: “I don’t know what is
too long or too short to stay, but we must.”
The answer? A far different ending than the last time Americans
fought in Iraq, he said.
At the close of the 1991 Persian
Gulf War, he told the audience,
American leaders halted the US
military action, then encouraged
and armed coups to overthrow
Saddam Hussein — and in so doing, left hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis dead, created instability and
planted the seeds of anti-Americanism. The repercussions of that
Gulf War can be found in the current Iraqi conflict, he said.
“So, to the question, ‘What do
we owe the Iraqis?’ my answer is
that in 1991, we owed them more
than that,” said Fr. McNellis.
Fr. McNellis made his remarks
as part of a forum sponsored on
March 18 by Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life that
examined the religious and moral
implications of the American pres-
ence in Iraq. Appearing with Fr.
McNellis were Andrew J. Bacevich,
a professor of history and international relations at
Boston University,
and Rev. J. Bryan
Hehir, the Parker
Gilbert
Montgomery Professor
of the Practice of
Religion and Public Life at the Harvard University Facilities Management Electrician John Robishaw and
Kennedy School his son Erik in 2003, following Erik’s return from service
of Government.
in Iraq and Afghanistan. (File photo by Lee Pellegrini)
Fr. McNellis said he believed
the war had been mismanaged unFive years ago, Robishaw’s son
til recently by American leaders, Erik was serving in Iraq with the
and constantly misrepresented by US Army’s 101st Airborne Divithe American media.
sion, his third deployment to a
“Our leaders haven’t asked the combat area after serving previous
country to go to war, not from tours in Bosnia and Afghanistan.
the day it began,” said McNellis. “I made a lot of visits to the chapel
“Other than higher gas prices, what over at St. Mary’s,” admits the elsacrifices have any of us made?”
der Robishaw. “I still make them,
He also said that leaders must by the way, for the soldiers who are
carefully weigh that the US Army still serving over there.
is “at the breaking point” with
“See all this gray hair?” he adds,
the fact that immediate withdrawal pointing to his head. “I earned evmay set the stage for large-scale ery one of them. But I am so proud
humanitarian atrocities.
of Erik, he’s a fine young man.”
“There were two mistakes that
After his original four-year hitch
were made in the past that ought in the Army, Erik returned to the
not be made again: We could stay family’s home in Marshfield in the
too involved too long as we did fall of 2003. “Erik came back in
in both Europe and South Korea, one piece,” Robishaw says, describwhich creates dependency and re- ing how his son had taken part in
sentment. In the case of Iraq, it firefights and hostile actions in the
would be an insult to their sover- early phases of the Iraq war. “He
eignty.
also came home with several deco“The other mistake is if we rations, a lot of discipline, confijust get out, don’t talk about the dence in himself, and some great
consequences. Iraq is not the only organizational skills.”
issue here. We can’t go back to
Following his discharge, Erik
pre-2003. There are consequences took a couple of courses in BC’s
for us, as well. I don’t know what Woods College of Advancing Studis too long or too short to stay, but ies, but decided to study to become
we must,” said Fr. McNellis, a for- an emergency medical technician.
mer US Army infantry officer who He is currently a paramedic in the
served in Vietnam and also worked town of Braintree.
there as a journalist.
Last year, Erik joined a NaFr. McNellis told a story from tional Guard Special Forces Group
Iraq: American soldiers stop a van and in April will begin a grueling
as it approaches a checkpoint. See- 18-month active duty training reging two children in the backseat, imen that will eventually make him
the soldiers allow the vehicle to a Green Beret medical sergeant, a
pass — only to watch in horror as military specialty that could land
it approaches a populated market, him in the middle of any of the
whereupon the driver and passen- world’s hotspots. Once he becomes
ger flee and detonate the van, kill- a Special Forces operative, Erik will
ing the children inside and nearby consider staying in the Army for
civilians.
his career, his father says.
“That is evil, there is no better
“A lot of people sometimes have
word,” said Fr. McNellis. “We trouble understanding this,” Robowe the Iraqis better that that. We ishaw adds. “There’s a lot of negahave to ask ourselves what kind of tivity around here about the war
people do we want to be the ones and everything. A lot of people ask
to make the decisions. At mini- me ‘Why does he want to do that?’
mum, we owe them an end to that It’s easy - he wants to be the best.
destruction and a chance to decide
“He wants this as much as Matt
the future for themselves.”
Ryan wants to be a first round
—Melissa Beecher draft pick in the NFL,” laughs
Robishaw. “I certainly worry about
* * *
him, but I know he’s going to be in
with the best.”
Facilities Management Electri—Reid Oslin
cian John Robishaw knows full
well what it is like to be bursting
* * *
with pride in a son’s service to
his country, but at the same time
Five summers ago, Lydia Khalil,
constantly fearful about the young ’02, had a once-in-a-lifetime opman’s chosen path in harm’s way. portunity.
Continued on page 9
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
March 27, 2008
HEIGHTS
OF
EXCELLENCE
Finding God in the Law
Photos by Lee Pellegrini
Fr. Kalscheur thinks law students can, and should, ponder the bigger questions
“Heights of Excellence” profiles faculty
members who, through their exemplary teaching and research, contribute to the intellectual
and spiritual life of Boston College.
“Lawyers I suppose were children once.”
-Charles Lamb
Q: What’s the difference between God and a lawyer?
A: God doesn’t think He’s a lawyer.
By Sean Smith
Chronicle Editor
If Assoc. Prof. Gregory Kalscheur, SJ (Law),
doesn’t expect lawyers to retain the innocence of
childhood, neither does he believe it axiomatic that
lawyers attain a deity-like arrogance in their abilities.
What he does believe is that it’s possible to find
God in the ordinary study and practice of law.
“Why not?” he says. “We feel enriched when we
allow ourselves to bring to our lives qualities like
reflection, discernment, compassion and integrity
– that which we often associate with the practice of
faith. There’s no reason we can’t work to nurture
those same qualities in the practice of law, and in
so doing benefit those who serve, and are served by,
the law.”
In only his fifth year at the Boston College Law
School, Fr. Kalscheur has impressed colleagues, as
well as students, with his dedication to promoting
a study of law that aspires for something more than
a profession. Even as he teaches the basics of legal
practice, Fr. Kalscheur gently but firmly exhorts
prospective lawyers to consider other fundamental
questions beyond the immediacy of civil procedure
or corporate litigation.
These questions — about the nature of justice,
for instance, or the relationship between society
and individual, or of faith and career — are worth
exploring for their own sake, according to Fr.
Kalscheur. Furthermore, he says, it’s an exploration that professors, as well as students, should
consider.
When he talks about the larger themes of law,
Fr. Kalscheur is not speaking from the abstract
but from experience, as someone who left a
promising career as a lawyer at a major Washington, DC, firm to join the Jesuits. Fr. Kalscheur’s
message has clearly resonated with students, as
evidenced by his selection for the 2006 Emil
Slizewski Faculty Excellence Award from the BC
Law Student Association — and with many of
his colleagues, too.
Count Patrick Hurley, JD’07, as one very
satisfied former student of Fr. Kalscheur. “To
me, Fr. Kalscheur’s story is an impressive one
of vocation,” says Hurley, now an associate with
Goodwin Procter in Boston. “At a key stage in
his life, Fr. Kalscheur decided that one path full
of ‘success’ as generally defined by society was
not what he wanted, and he took a path much
outside the norm, but one that he felt called
to, and to my knowledge, has found incredibly
rewarding.
“Not that legions of his students will necessarily be rushing out to become Jesuit priests, but I
think his example is a strong message to students
that it is okay to create your own definition of
success and make decisions based on where you are
called to be, not simply where the greatest paycheck
may be. It is certainly a lesson that I’ve taken to
heart and will keep in mind as I make choices about
my career and about life.”
“Greg is a constant, gentle reminder of how
we can play a more helpful role for students who
want guidance on their journey,” says Prof. Judith
McMorrow (Law). “Even students who have no
faith tradition have a yearning to be part of some-
thing bigger, part of the common good. Greg
understands this, and he knows how to engage the
students sensitively and appeal to their nature as
thoughtful human beings who want to do right,
not simply do well.”
Associate Dean Michael Cassidy, who along with
Fr. Kalscheur helped organize the Law School’s
popular “Sidebar” student retreat, says, “He is masterful at the Socratic method, but Greg is also present for students in other contexts, including outside
the classroom. Law school can be such a busy, demanding, overwhelming experience, and the three
years go by just like that. You want students to be
able to step outside themselves and take stock of
what they do, and Greg really encourages that.”
Something clicked
Fr. Kalscheur grew up in Port Edwards, Wisc.,
a paper mill town of some 2,000 people located
about 100 miles north of Madison. His father was
the president of a local savings and loan association,
his mother a high school teacher before she left
to stay at home with Fr. Kalscheur and his three
younger brothers.
He may not have wanted to be a lawyer from
childhood, exactly, but Fr. Kalscheur’s youthful
interests certainly led him in that direction: history, politics, then government service. When he
went on a trip to Washington, DC, while in high
school, he found himself intrigued by the city, and
by Georgetown University. When it came time
to choose a college, he considered staying close to
home – Marquette in Milwaukee and St. Norbert’s
(near Green Bay) – but in the end he chose Georgetown.
For law school, Fr. Kalscheur went back to the
Midwest, to the University of Michigan. It was
there that he encountered an old acquaintance from
Georgetown, and the two began having “significant
conversations about how I understood my faith as a
Catholic and why it was important to my life.”
During one such conversation, “out of the blue,
as I remember it,” Fr. Kalscheur’s friend asked if
he had ever thought about becoming a Jesuit. It
had never occurred to Fr. Kalscheur before, but as
“Greg is a constant, gentle reminder of how we can play a more
helpful role for students who want guidance on their journey,” says a
colleague of Fr. Kalscheur, shown leading his Civil Procedure class.
he thought about it “something seemed to click in
my heart.”
Nonetheless, Fr. Kalscheur headed off down a
most enviable legal path: clerking for Judge Kenneth F. Ripple in the US Court of Appeals for the
Seventh Circuit, then off to work as a litigator at
Hogan & Hartson in Washington, DC. There
were plenty of positive experiences and friendships
during those four years, but something wasn’t
working, he recalls.
“I just felt as if a part of me wasn’t being fully
Fr. Kalscheur felt that as a Jesuit priest
he should “try to give flesh to God’s word
in settings that engage reflective human
beings – especially settings where God’s
presence might not necessarily be noticed.”
Law school represented the “sort of human
endeavor where this could take place.”
utilized where I was,” he explains. “I wasn’t as full
of life and energy and joy as God desires for us. I
began to think again about entering the Jesuits, and
as I learned more about prayer and discernment,
the possibility seemed all the more real to me.”
In 1992, he entered the Society of Jesus. As he
progressed toward his ordination, he became drawn
to the idea of teaching, and in particular teaching
law. “As a second-year novice I taught a constitutional law seminar to Georgetown undergrads,
and this was something I enjoyed and seemed to
be good at doing,” he says. “It seemed to me that,
as a Jesuit priest, I should try to give flesh to God’s
word in settings that engage reflective human beings – especially settings where God’s presence
might not necessarily be noticed.
“I felt the field of law and the contemporary law
school were the sorts of human endeavors where
this could take place.”
Fr. Kalscheur taught political science and served
as assistant to the director of the Center for Values
and Service at Loyola College in Maryland, then
became associate pastor at St. Raphael the Archangel Church in Raleigh, NC. In 2003, he had the
opportunity to come to BC Law, and couldn’t have
been happier about it.
“BC seemed like a place interested in taking
seriously what it means to be a Jesuit law school,”
he says, “and open to the range of things I really
wanted to do, especially in the area of student formation.”
“The freedom to search”
Fr. Kalscheur doesn’t hit students over the head
with the account of his calling, but he shares it
where and when possible, especially at Sidebar or in
out-of-classroom conversations. “I’m not expecting
every person to go down the same path I did. I do
want them to see how the Ignatian understanding
of discernment helped me grow in my own vocation, then consider the nature of their vocations
and what opportunities these provide for encounters with God.”
Which is exactly the right note to strike, says Fr.
Kalscheur’s fellow Law School Jesuit, Assoc. Prof.
Continued on page 8
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
march 27, 2008
Q&A
‘BC Made Me a Writer’
Student’s senior thesis now has a wider audience
Most undergraduates could
hardly imagine their senior thesis
winding up on display in bookstores,
but that is exactly what happened
to Boston College 2007 graduate
Katherine Adam, who along with
Prof. Charles Derber (Sociology)
is author of the newly published
book The New Feminized Majority: How Democrats Can Change
America with Women’s Values.
Early in her senior year at BC,
Adam, a Tucson, Ariz., native, had
sought out Derber, a social critic and
author of 12 books, for assistance in
crafting her honors thesis, which
dealt with the role of gender and
politics. Derber encouraged Adam
to consider expanding the thesis into
a book, and the two worked over the
summer on the draft.
The book discusses the rise of a
“feminized majority,” made up of
both women and men, that embraces
values such as empathy, cooperation,
and a preference for non-violent solutions to conflicts — values historically associated with women. Adam
and Derber tout the emergence of
this phenomenon as a potentially
transformative agent in American
politics, and one that could play a
major role in the 2008 elections.
The two co-authors marked the
release of The New Feminized Majority March 12 with a talk in
the Eagles Nest, introduced by Vice
Provost for Undergraduate Affairs
Donald Hafner.
Adam — now outreach coordinator for the Philadelphia GROW
Project, a research and advocacy organization within the Drexel School
of Public Health studying how hun-
ger and poverty affect pre-school
children — spoke with Chronicle
about writing The New Feminized
Majority, and offered some analysis
on the 2008 election campaign.
What events and experiences
formed the inspiration for your
original thesis?
My first political experience
was campaigning for Howard
Dean in New Hampshire in 2003.
I was 18 years old, and had been
at BC for all of a month. I traveled to Dover with a group of
other BC kids in a van, and we
went door-to-door in the freezing
cold trying to convince people to
vote for Dean in the Democratic
primary. It was fantastic!
That weekend gave me the political bug, and I ended up volunteering on about a dozen other
campaigns during college. I also
interned for Senator John Kerry’s
Boston office, helping constituents find public housing. I worked
for an amazing female staffer who
would talk to me about the challenges women face in politics —
even in the Democratic Party. I
became very interested in gender
and politics.
Did you always feel confident
about your writing, such that
you could put together a major
thesis? How did your experience
at BC shape your writing?
To say that BC improved my
writing would be an understatement; BC made me a writer. Writing is the foundation of the entire
BC academic experience. I felt my
writing tighten with every class
I took, from Freshman Writing
Seminar to philosophy to history.
As a freshman, I was distressed
when I got papers back from
professors that were absolutely
covered in red ink. Over four
years, I became more confident in
my writing, and the process got
easier. Still, even as a senior, the
thought of writing a thesis seemed
daunting! But I heard such good
things about Charlie and the way
he works with students, and they
all turned out to be true.
What’s your take on the 2008
election campaign so far, in relation to the premise of your
book?
The rising feminized majority
will be the defining element in
the Democratic primary race and
the general election. In the states
where Barack Obama has emerged
victorious, he has done so by undercutting Hillary Clinton’s support among women. This is important because women make up
60 percent of Democratic primary
voters in many states. His success
with female voters is also counterintuitive because, of course,
Clinton is a woman. The string
of Obama victories highlights the
complexities of gender politics,
and shows the importance of conveying feminized values to voters.
Democratic voters — female and
male — are looking for feminized
change in America, and the candidates need to show that they can
deliver.
The differences between Clin-
Katherine Adam,’ 07, with Prof. Charles Derber (Sociology), her co-author for The
New Feminized Majority: “I heard such good things about Charlie and the way he
works with students, and they all turned out to be true.” (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
ton and Obama will seem miniscule once we enter the general
election. John McCain is a hyper-masculinized candidate: he is
fighting for a larger military and
a continued presence in Iraq, and
he entertains the idea of strikes
against Iran. At his public appearances, he is often flanked by
military officials who are meant
to symbolize the masculinized
protectionism McCain implicitly
promises voters.
To defeat McCain, the Democratic candidate needs to present
an alternative vision for the future,
based on the feminized values of
cooperation, empathy, and community. The worst thing Obama
or Clinton can do is try to beat
McCain at his own game by huffing and puffing about how tough
Democrats can be. Democrats
need to offer a different definition
of the word “strength”, strength
rooted in feminized values.
—Sean Smith
Law School Jesuit Advocates Exploring Wider Questions
Continued from page 7
Frank Herrmann, SJ. “The calling
is so unpredictable. God makes
moves when and where God will.
It often comes as a surprise for
the individual who planned one
course of life and now finds the
spirit tugging them in a different
direction.
“What Greg does is make
people aware that they have the
freedom to search for that spirit,
and it’s a freedom they should
embrace.”
As a professor of law, though,
Fr. Kalscheur has to ensure that
his students have a firm grounding in the discipline, its spiritual
dimensions notwithstanding. He
regards Civil Procedure as “the
most important class in law school
– it’s absolutely integral to understanding the litigation process:
how to structure a lawsuit, getting ready for court and so on.
This is where students learn the
language of law, and get a sense of
the different options and avenues
lawyers take.”
Standing in front of the small
amphitheater-like lecture hall, Fr.
Kalscheur is generally businesslike, although by no means distant,
as he covers the finer points of, for
example, how jurisdiction is de-
termined in a case involving a for- changes that had swept across Eueign corporation. He’ll call upon rope over the previous two years,”
a student – he addresses them as he says. “So the question here is,
“Mister” or “Ms.” – to summarize given the failure of communism,
the facts of a case or explain a is he saying that capitalism is the
judicial ruling, then elaborate on triumphant social system? Should
or amplify their response, extend- it be the model for Third World
ing one hand and gesturing while and former communist counhe speaks, as
tries?”
if law had its
One stu“I’m not expecting every perown unique
dent thinks
form of sign
John Paul II
son to go down the same path
language.
was suggestI did,” says Fr. Kalscheur. “I
It’s coning a middle
siderably difpath: Socialdo want them to see how the
ferent in his
ism failed,
Ignatian understanding of disCatholic Sobut “unbricial Thought cernment helped me grow in my
dled capitalseminar for
ism” is not
own vocation, then consider the
second and
the answer.
third-year
Another stunature of their vocations and
students, all
dent thinks
of whom Fr. what opportunities these provide
the Pope was
Kalscheur
being caufor encounters with God.”
addresses by
tionary: Sofirst name.
cialism failed.
On one reYou
have
cent late-winter afternoon, 19 stu- good things in capitalism. Don’t
dents gather around an oval table blow it.
in a small Stuart Hall room, ready
“The view of the human perto discuss a 1991 Pope John Paul son is what’s critical here,” says
II encyclical that encompasses Fr. Kalscheur. “Do both systems,
economics, society and law.
in their own ways, reduce humans
“The Pope was reflecting on the to mere components instead of
enabling them to realize their full
potential as individuals?”
A third student posits the welfare state as potentially melding
the differing socioeconomic and
political systems.
“Well, let’s think on that,”
muses Fr. Kalscheur. “How do
you empower the person in a
community? And what is the role
of law in that? This is not a onesize-fits-all approach. What you
have to ask – and this is what John
Paul II is getting at – is, is the
common good respected? Is the
dignity of the individual upheld?”
It’s pretty heady stuff for students who, in a few years time,
may be in Wall Street boardrooms
or some big urban law firm. But
judging by the favorable response
he’s seen since he began teaching
the seminar, Fr. Kalscheur can
only conclude that they have both
the ability and the desire to tackle
such matters.
“What I’ve found is that students, even if they are not Catholic, are tremendously impressed by
the depth and vision in the Catholic faith tradition and its significance for law,” he says. “It doesn’t
mean they all have to go out and
be ‘Catholic lawyers,’ whatever
that is. They are simply able to see
law in a whole other context, and
perhaps can make connections
they hadn’t seen before.”
Third-year BC Law student
Sean Gibbons, who says he considers himself a devout Catholic,
has found the seminar valuable in
many respects, not least because of
Fr. Kalscheur’s presence.
“I disagree with Father on
any number of things, but I also
respect his experience and his
thoughtfulness,” says Gibbons,
from the Bronx, NY. “One of
the things I love about BC Law
is that it’s not a factory, it doesn’t
turn out a bunch of suits, and Fr.
Kalscheur is a big part of that.
“Having been in this seminar
is not going to help me when
I’m about to stand up and do a
summation. But it will help me
in the way I conduct myself, the
way I treat my clients, the way my
colleagues perceive me and how
I deal with them. I know there’s
something bigger than what we
happen to be dealing with on a
particular day.
“To me, that’s as important
to the practice of law as any Civil
Procedure class.”
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
March 27, 2008
By Ed Hayward
Staff Writer
“Follow the money” is a critical
tenet of journalism, but Cullen
Nutt, ’09, took a slightly different
path as he probed a recent seachange in US military strategy:
He decided to follow the brass.
When he was done, he’d
reached Gen. David Petraeus,
commander of US forces in Iraq
and produced 2,200 words of sterling reportage that The Star-Ledger
of Newark, NJ, saw fit to print in
its entirety on the eve of the fifth
anniversary of the war in Iraq,
a time when valuable newsprint
is typically reserved for veteran
policy makers and pundits.
The political science major
from New Jersey used an Advanced Study Grant to pursue
his interest in foreign policy, in
particular the first new manual
on counterinsurgency in nearly
20 years – a profound procedural
shift praised as a much-needed
departure from Army-think, and
condemned as a break with conventional warfare strategy that
could imperil American soldiers
on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rather than a mechanical case
study, Nutt’s March 12 essay “Petraeus’ Big Tent” breathes life into
the normally staid arena of policy
formulation.
He begins: “The Front Page,
Lee Pellegrini
Student’s Project Lands Him Interview with Army’s Top Brass
Cullen Nutt
a popular Washington, DC.,
bistro, was an unlikely place for
the genesis of a radical new war
strategy for Iraq. But on Nov. 7,
2005, over gourmet burgers and
beer, an equally unlikely group
of military men and Ivy League
eggheads sketched out a plan for
a new Army and Marine Corps
counterinsurgency manual — on
a cocktail napkin.”
While Nutt poured over the
manual itself and leading policy
journals, he acquired most of his
information by talking his way up
the chain of command, led by the
questions raised by the manual
and his own curiosity.
A campus lecture
by Nate Fick, a former Marine and author of the combat
memoir One Bullet
Away, led to an exchange of e-mails
and a new contact,
Fick’s friend, Army
Lt. Col. John Nagl,
a contributor to
the new manual.
Other contacts followed. As he started to conclude his
research into the
manual’s unusual
team of contributors and its doctoral
degree-holding editor, there was just
one person left to speak with:
Petraeus himself.
“I sent him an e-mail and within a day he replied and asked for
my phone numbers and said he’d
get back to me,” said Nutt. “It was
a long weekend in October and
when he originally called, I was
at home. I guess my dorm phone
was ringing with Gen. Petraeus on
the line and nobody picked up. So
they called me at home.”
So why does the commander of
forces in the middle of a war zone
reach out to a college junior? “He
taught economics at West Point
and I think he likes the university
Five Years Later: BC and Iraq
Continued from page 6
As a member of the policy
staff for the Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA) under presidential envoy Paul Bremer, she journeyed throughout Iraq, witness to
an accumulation of setbacks and
triumphs she and her colleagues
hoped would ultimately result in a
reborn nation.
Interviewed by Boston College
Chronicle in September of that
year, Khalil — who went on to
serve the CPA until it was dissolved
in the summer of 2004 — spoke of
the “intensity and excitement” she
felt in Iraq.
“I have felt very fortunate to be
part of it,” she said. “I graduated
college a year ago, and now I am
watching history being made.”
History, of course, would take
some dramatic and harrowing
turns in the months and years
ahead, tempering — or dispelling
— the optimism many Americans
felt about Iraq’s future. Similarly,
the role of those who sought to
craft a new history for Iraq, including Bremer, came under increasing
criticism.
Khalil, now a senior lecturer at
Macquarie University in Australia,
says her views on the CPA, and the
Iraq War, have shifted during the
past five years. But she retains a
strong commitment to promoting
democracy in the Middle East, and
believes the American presence in
Iraq is not an irredeemably lost
cause.
“I think that the CPA did some
good things — like the interim
constitution and public integrity
reform — and some bad things,
like overly harsh ‘de-Baathification’
and a reliance on sectarian formulas to dole out government posts,”
says Khalil, who is writing a book
on Iraqi politics. “I also think that
Ambassador Bremer was handed
an impossible task and did what
he could with it at the time. He
himself has acknowledged some of
his mistakes.
“One of the things that often
does not make press reporting in
the States is that many Iraqis kind
of look back on the CPA days with
a bit of nostalgia. Iraqis have very
mixed feelings: While they enjoy
having their sovereignty restored
and did not like being dictated to
by the CPA, they also acknowledged Bremer’s intentions and decisiveness.”
Khalil believes the US has hampered its own progress in Iraq with
an overall lack of patience, and in
using ill-conceived timetables and
points of reference. The benchmarks put forth by the Iraq Study
Group, she adds, “make the same
mistake” as the Bush Administration in trying to measure progress
in short time frames and in somewhat “artificial criteria.”
“The truth is that Iraq is going
through an imposed revolution. Iraq has been completely transformed by our decision to oust
Saddam and issues of identity and
politics are going to take a very
long time to figure out. The consequences of this is not something
that we thought through properly
Former Marine Ryan Smith as a BC freshman in 2004. (File photo by Kris Brewer)
before the decision to invade.”
While she regards as justifiable
the negative views of the decision
to go to war, and of the post-war
management, Khalil does feel the
surge has helped to create stability after the sectarian bloodshed
of 2006 — too many people are
looking at Iraq “through that 2006
lens.”
The impact of these five years in
Iraq has undoubtedly hurt the US,
at home and abroad, says Khalil:
There has been a significant loss of
faith in the government’s foreign
policy decision-making and intelligence process, and a sobering realization of the limits of American
military power.
“I think that many people also
question our good intentions and
the power of America to be a
positive force in the world which I
think is the biggest loss of all. We
may be able to still come out of the
environment. He’s savvy and he
knows students are really interested in this sort of thing,” said
Nutt. “I think he’s also interested
in reaching different audiences
and saw that opportunity.”
Nutt said he expects to expand
the research into his senior thesis.
This summer he will undertake
an internship with the State Department. Nutt credited his advisor, Vice Provost Donald Hafner,
with encouraging him to pursue
the study grant and the weighty
topic.
Nutt prefers not to discuss
where he stands on the war in Iraq,
instead focusing on the lessons the
military continues to learn about
21st century warfare and counterinsurgency and the questions
those lessons will ultimately pose
to soldiers, policy makers, politicians and the American public.
“More than anything else it
made me respect the armed forces
and their work,” said Nutt. “They
are very well educated and very
committed. They are not as onedimensional as the movies and
TV paint them. It is not just
about battle.”
Senior’s Newest Film Focuses
on Area Muslim Community
Boston College student filmmaker Matthew Porter, ’09, will
screen “In Good Faith,” his new documentary on the Muslim
community in Boston and the Northeast, on April 10 at 8 p.m. in
Higgins 300.
Porter’s film highlights the recent construction of New England’s
largest mosque in Roxbury and relationships between the Islamic
community and the greater interfaith community in and around
Boston. After the film will be a question-and-answer session with
Porter and some of the interviewees depicted in the film.
In 2006, Porter produced and directed “American Voices,” a
nearly one-hour documentary about the act, and art, of protest in
the United States. To make the film, Porter spent almost a month
in Washington, DC, filming and interviewing activists, including
those who were rallying against the war in Iraq and others staging
counter-protests against the anti-war demonstrators.
For more on “In Good Faith,” see www.ugbc.org/nyk/segments/0708/goodfaith.php.
—Office of Public Affairs
Iraq experience with some honor,
and who knows how history will
ultimately judge the decision. But
fiascos like Abu Ghuraib and Haditha have hurt us in the eyes of
America and the world, despite
the bravery of the majority of US
soldiers.”
Khalil herself speaks of some
personal changes, in addition to her
education about the Middle East,
foreign policy and the workings
of government. “I’ve learned that
good intentions are not enough
and I’ve learned how people vilify
those that don’t agree with them. Iraq has been a lightening rod and
a polarizing issue in America. I’ve
learned that you have to have the
American people behind you when
conducting any foreign policy decision and that sometimes the American public, on the whole, has a
hard time evaluating foreign policy
decisions. “A difficult Catch 22,” she
adds.
—Sean Smith
* * *
Serving as a US Marine during
the opening weeks of the Iraq war
was certainly a life-changing experience for Ryan Smith, ’07, but the
combat veteran says that the four
years that he subsequently spent at
Boston College were equally formative.
“I had trouble initially adjusting
from the military to civilian life,”
admits Smith, now a first-year law
student at UCLA. “I don’t know
if I would have been able to do it
without strong support from the BC
community. My best friends in life
are those Marines that I served with
in Iraq, and my friends that I made
while I was at BC.”
Smith, who enlisted in the Marines right out of high school, had
the rare distinction of receiving his
acceptance letter to Boston College
while he was serving in Iraq. That
missive opened a new life for the
young California native.
“I had caring professors who
took me under their wing and
helped me get back in the scholastic train of thought,” says Smith
who had been a member of the
Marine’s 1st Division, a unit that
fought its way from the oil fields
of southern Iraq up into Baghdad
during the first three weeks of the
war.
Philosophy faculty members
Adj. Assoc. Prof. Brian Braman
and Adj. Asst. Prof. Paul McNellis, SJ, in the Perspectives Program
“really had an impact on my life
and helped me get the most out
of my education,” he says. “Law
school would be impossible without the writing and critical analysis
skills that I gained. I cherished my
time at BC.”
Smith maintains his support of
American objectives in Iraq. “We
owe a moral duty to the Iraqi
people to stay the course and help
them establish some sort of stable
form of government,” he says. “It is
also imperative to our national security that we do not lose this war.
All the Americans serving in Iraq
and Afghanistan are volunteers,
and the majority of them strongly
believe in what they are doing.
“The best way to honor their
sacrifices is to let them complete
their mission,” Smith says.
—Reid Oslin
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
march 27, 2008
10
Postings
Bluhm Lecture to
feature Heller-Roazen
The Heinz Bluhm Memorial Lectures
in European Literature will present a
talk, “Along Liquid Paths: A Genealogy
of Piracy,” by Daniel Heller-Roazen, director of Graduate Studies in Comparative Literature at Princeton University,
on April 3 at 4:30 p.m. in Fulton 511.
Among Heller-Roazen’s areas of interest are Greek and Roman letters, the
transmission of classical learning to the
Arabic world and to the Latin West and
20th-century philosophy.
For more information, call ext.2-8497
or e-mail kevin.newmark@bc.edu.
Program of art songs at
St. Mary’s April 5
The Slavic and Eastern Languages and
Literatures Department will sponsor a
concert, “Sacro e profano: Art Songs
East and West,” on April 5 at 3 p.m. in
St. Mary’s Chapel.
Featured performers will be Olga
Bykhovsky (mezzo-soprano), Carla
Paryla (soprano) and William Merrill
(pianist), who will present such pieces
as Caccini’s “Ave Maria,” Schumann’s
“An den Abendstern” and Brahms’ “Die
Schwestern.”
The event is free and open to the
public. For information, call ext.2-3912
or e-mail cnnmj@bc.edu.
April 5 workshop on the
‘21st Century Parish’
The Institute for Religious Education
and Pastoral Ministry and Church in
the 21st Century Center will sponsor
a workshop on April 5, “Sociology of
the 21st Century Parish,” from 9 a.m.-3
p.m. in the McGuinn Fifth Floor Lounge.
Presenting the workshop will be
James D. Davidson Jr., professor of sociology at Purdue University, who will
examine current conditions and emerging patterns in Catholic parishes.
Call ext.2-8057 or e-mail irepm@bc.edu for information.
Boisi Center fellow to
speak on immigration
Grete Brochmann, a visiting fellow
at the Boisi Center for Religion and
American Public Life for the 2007-2008
academic year, will present the talk
“Immigration and the Scandinavian
Welfare State” on April 10 at noon in
the center, located at 24 Quincy Road.
A senior researcher at the Institute
for Social Research and professor of
sociology at the University of Oslo,
Brochmann will discuss dilemmas confronting the advanced welfare states
of Scandinavian countries in relation
to current – basically unskilled – immigration.
Reservations are required to attend
the event. Call ext.2-1860 or e-mail
richarsh@bc.edu.
Alumni Travel Study
programs offered
Space is still available for the following Boston College Alumni Association
2008 Travel Study programs: China and
the Yangtze River, Sept. 10-22 (book by
April 1 and save $300 per couple); Burgundy and Provence, France, Oct. 10-18
(book by March 28 and save $1,000 per
couple); and Chianti, Italy, Oct. 26-Nov.
3 (book by April 1 and save $200 per
couple).
Other trips still accepting applications
are Normandy and Brittany, July 18-19,
and Ennis, Ireland, July 31-Aug. 8.
For more information, see www.
bc.edu/alumni/association/travel or cal
ext.2-8035.
Getting Off to a $uccessful Start, Money-wise
Program of seminars
gives students tips on
financial management
By Melissa Beecher
Staff Writer
A free program sponsored by
the Office of Student Services
aims to give Boston College students a dose of financial literacy
in subjects ranging from taxes to
credit to mortgages.
“$uccessful Start” began two
years ago after a survey showed
that students – from undergraduates to law students – were interested in learning about basic
finances. Student Services put together a series of regularly scheduled workshops and seminars on
personal financial management
that are led by BC employees and
expert guest speakers.
This year, the program has
really caught on, according to Senior Financial Services Associate
Marsia Hill: Typically between
five and 25 students attend each
late afternoon class, where pizza
and soda are served as speakers
give lessons and advice.
Credit and Collections Manager John Brown said programs
like $uccessful Start are cropping
up on college campuses across
the country. Schools like Uni-
versity of North Texas, Smith
College and Vanderbilt University already offer workshops on
personal finance management or
have departments dedicated to
helping students become more
financially savvy.
“We know that students are
not getting this in high school
and many are not getting this in
college,” said Brown. “At BC, the
need is here, the interest is here.
For the first time many students
are learning how to balance a
checkbook or want to know more
about their loans.”
And even for those who have
years of experience or a mortgage
payment, he notes, the classes offer insight on how to improve.
One recent $uccessful Start
seminar brought in Bradley Finger, external training specialist
for American Student Assistance
— the organization that underwrites many federal student loans
— to discuss the pitfalls of not
maintaining and managing credit
wisely.
Standing before a small group
of students in Devlin Hall, Finger rattled off some sobering facts
and figures: 78 percent of Americans have an error on their credit
report; canceling credit cards will
not improve your credit score,
and in fact, may decrease it; having poor or average credit could
Church21 Online Sets
Schedule for Spring Courses
Church in the 21st Century Online recently announced its
slate of spring courses, each featuring a guided discussion community and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
•Women Envisioning Church (begins April 7, four weeks):
Both women and men are encouraged to explore both patriarchal and prophetic views of women, an ambiguity toward
women in today’s Church, and how women continue to do
the work of envisioning a renewed church in the midst of this
ambiguity.
•What Makes Us Catholic, Part 2 (begins April 7, four weeks):
Continuing the guided study of the book of the same title by
Prof. Thomas Groome (Theology). Part 1 is not a pre-requisite
for registration in Part 2. Topics include: Leap of Faith, Justice,
Loving Beyond Borders, and Growing Spiritually.
end up costing a person hundreds
of thousands of dollars in interest
payments over the course of a
lifetime.
“It’s like this: let’s play a game
of life or death. I’m not going to
share the rules with you before
we start. Who wants to play?”
asked Finger, who worked in the
credit card industry before accepting a job with ASA.
“Who would want to? But
so many people do exactly that
without knowing exactly what
taking a loan means to their future. And I have seen it time and
time again, bad financial decisions destroy lives,” said Finger.
Besides sessions on managing
credit, $uccessful Start will hold
sessions on financial planning,
evaluating job offers, filing taxes
and consolidating student loans.
Brown and Hill envision that
Student Services will ultimately
spin off its own center for financial counseling, which could be
used by students, faculty, staff
and even neighbors. In the meantime, they are hoping to establish
partnerships with the business,
accounting and finance departments to offer workshops more
frequently and even more expertise.
“We want to give students the
tools to make sound financial decisions,” said Hill. “This program
is the beginning.”
For more information on $uccessful Start, or to access a list of
dates that workshops are available, visit www.bc.edu/offices/stserv/financial/succstart/
WELCOME ADDITIONS
•Asst. Clinical Prof. Maritza Karmely (Law)
Research interests: domestic violence, human rights and immigration.
Courses: Civil Litigation Clinic, Frederick Douglas Moot Court
A Boston College graduate in economics, Karmely has most recently held a position as a staff attorney for Casa Myrna Vazquez, a
Boston-based non-profit that works to end domestic violence through
advocacy, prevention and intervention. A member of the board for the
Latin American Health Institute in Boston, a community-based public
health organization, Karmely participates in the Family Law Task Force
Against Domestic Violence, a statewide advocacy group. She also has
volunteered to improve family law outcomes for indigent and unrepresented victims of violence by training and mentoring young attorneys,
and is active in efforts to reform child custody law.
•Asst. Prof. MaryLou Siefert (CSON)
Research interests: Nursing impact on quality of life outcomes in ovarian
cancer, long term survivors of cervical cancer, minority family caregivers,
cognitive function in women with induced menopause, effects of cancer
in long-term survivors of childhood cancer
Siefert arrives at BC with more than three decades as an oncology
and hospice nurse, and is a board member of the Connecticut Coalition
to Improve End of Life Care, an organization that aims to improve the
care through education, research, practice and public policy.
She holds degrees from the Grace New School of Nursing in New
Haven, Emmanuel College, Fordham University and Yale University.
—Melissa Beecher
This is the final installment for 2007-08 of “Welcome Additions,” which
profiles new faculty members at Boston College.
•Christian Faith and Moral Character (begins April 28,
four weeks): After clarifying the meaning of character and its
significance for the moral life, this course will treat the topics of
moral freedom, human sinfulness and the nature of conversion.
Streaming video film clips from feature films will be used to
highlight various themes emphasized in the articles.
•Gospel of Luke (begins May 12, two weeks): Learn about
this Gospel’s setting, the evangelist who wrote it, and the community for whom he was writing.
•The Creed: What We Believe (begins June 2, four weeks):
Using the Apostles Creed as its outline but referring also to the
Nicene Creed and to Scripture, this course explores both what
it means to believe as well as how to live those beliefs more
richly.
To register, or to find out more, see www.bc.edu/c21online
or contact Melinda Donovan at ext.2-0185, 1-800-487-1167 or
melinda.donovan@bc.edu.
University President William P. Leahy, SJ, celebrated a Mass in Conte Forum
at the beginning of the 57th Laetare Sunday celebration, which was held
March 2. Provost and Dean of Faculties Cutberto Garza gave the keynote address at the Laetare Sunday brunch that followed. (Photo by Rose Lincoln)
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
March 27, 2008
11
PEOPLE
•Adj. Assoc. Prof. Richard McGowan, SJ (CSOM), was a guest
on WGBH-TV’s “Greater Boston,” discussing the Massachusetts Legislature’s vote on Gov.
Deval Patrick’s casino plan.
•Connell School of Nursing Dean
Barbara Hazard and doctoral
candidate Connie Calvin spoke
with the Boston Herald about the
nationwide nursing faculty shortage.
•Center on Wealth and Philanthropy research fellow Keith
Whitaker reviewed The Middle
Class Millionaire, by Alan Prince
and Lewis Schiff, for the Wall
Street Journal.
•Director of Career Services Theresa Harrigan offered advice on
BostonNOW for prospective
college graduates about to begin
their job hunt.
•Irish Studies Program students
slated to perform a traditional
Irish step dance at a St. Patrick’s Day program in Brighton
previewed their performance on
New England Cable News “Good
Morning Live.”
•Reeves Wiedeman, ’08, wrote a
piece in the Boston Globe about
five former BC rugby players who
became members of the cheerleading squad.
accepted for publication by the
Journal of Business Ethics.
•The New York Times Magazine
featured Prof. Paul Schervish (Sociology), director of BC’s Center
on Wealth and Philanthropy.
•Adj. Assoc. Prof. Michael Noone
(Music) published the chapter
“The nuevo rezado, music scribes,
and the restoration of Morales’s
Toledo lamentation” in Cristóbal
de Morales: Sources, Influence and
Reception.
•Student Financial Strategies Director Bernard Pekala discussed
the credit crunch’s effect on the
college loan sector in an interview
with the Boston Herald.
•Asst. Prof. Claudia Rinaldi
(LSOE) co-authored “Preschool
matters: Predicting reading difficulties for Spanish-speaking students in first grade” in Learning
Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, and “Reading and written
language competency of incarcerated youth,” which was accepted
for publication to Reading and
Writing Quarterly: Overcoming
Learning Difficulties.
•Third-year BC Law student and
new mother Kathryn Beaumont
wrote on the challenge of multiple commitments as guest contributor to the Washington Post’s
“On Balance” work-life blog.
•Boisi Center for Religion and
American Public Life Director
Prof. Alan Wolfe (Political Science) spoke with WBZ-AM on
the possible effects of President
Bush’s endorsement of John McCain.
•Assoc. Prof. Kevin Kenny (History) offered his views to the
Irish Voice of the American Irish
Historical Society’s renovations of
its Fifth Avenue building in New
York City.
Publications
•Asst. Prof. Timothy Crawford
(Political Science) published
“Wedge Strategy, Balancing, and
the Deviant Case of Spain, 194041” in Security Studies.
Suzanne Camarata
Newsmakers
Nota Bene
Prof. Paul Lewis (English) served as a consultant for the documentary “Stand Up: Muslim American Comics Come of Age,” produced
and directed by Glenn Baker, which was selected as winner of a CINE
Golden Eagle Award. The film will be broadcast on PBS May 11 as part
of the “America at a Crossroads” series.
The Boston College Center for Work & Family welcomed human
resources managers and decision-makers from 14 countries to its second
Global Summit, held Feb. 26-28 in Shanghai.
Sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceuticals and hosted by the Dow
Chemical Co., the CW&F summit marked the second meeting of the
Global Workforce Roundtable, a network comprised of human resources professionals from leading multinational organizations formed
to address the workforce management challenges emerging from the
dynamics of globalization.
Summit organizers said talent management is a critical business issue
emerging markets such as China and India, and work-life integration
is a global workforce imperative. Attendees discussed global workforce
management issues, with a focus on: reconciling global corporate strategies with local policies, economies, and cultures; crafting global strategies and mobilizing strategy into action; and integrating the work-life
needs of employees as a core component of talent management.
A third summit is planned for 2009, said Danielle Hartmann, assistant director of the Global Workforce Roundtable, whose partners
are Cadbury Schweppes, Dow Chemical, EMC2 Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods,
Merck, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Procter & Gamble, Prudential Financial, Royal Dutch Shell and State Street Corp.
Crawford
Honors/Appointments
•Prof. Dwayne E. Carpenter
(Romance Languages) has been
named corresponding editor of
the Anuario de Estudios Judíos in
Madrid. •Prof. William Torbert (CSOM)
is the winner of the 2008 David
L. Bradford Outstanding Educator Award from the OBTS Teaching Society for Management
Educators, in recognition of his
career achievements in teaching
and learning excellence in the
organizational and management
sciences. The award will be presented at the 35th annual OBTC
Teaching Conference in June at
Babson College.
•Assoc. Prof. Rita J. Olivieri
(CSON) was chosen as winner of
the Academic Innovative Teaching Award by the Massachusetts
Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Time and a Half
•Center on Work & Aging Codirector Michael Smyer presented
“Mental Health: Pre and Post-Ka-
Spotlighting recent
faculty publications
MEANING AND AUTHENTICITY: BERNARD LONERGAN & CHARLES
TAYLOR ON THE DRAMA OF AUTHENTIC HUMAN EXISTENCE
By Prof. Brian Braman (Philosophy)
It’s an ancient question: “What is the life of excellence?” But, according to Prof. Brian Braman (Philosophy), the question nowadays
is being asked in a different way, in terms
of self-fulfillment, self-realization, and selfactualization — all pointing to a desire to be
“authentic,” he says.
While this notion of authenticity has its
share of critics, Braman argues in his new
book Meaning and Authenticity Braman says
that it is possible to speak about human
authenticity as something that addresses contemporary concerns as well as the ancient
preoccupation with the nature of the good
life. Braman draws on the works of Bernard
Lonergan, SJ, and Charles Taylor, both of who placed “a high value
on the search for human authenticity.” Meaning and Authenticity
sets up a dialogue between the two philosophers and their belief in
a concept of authentic human life that overcomes moral relativism,
narcissism, privatism, and the collapse of the public self.
“This project is partly the result of teaching the Perspectives I
class, which focuses on that ancient question,” says Braman. “I noticed that my students were grappling with the same question, but
using such modern terms as ‘being authentically me,’ ‘wanting to
realize myself’ and so on.
“Of course, the work is also a personal interrogation of what it
means to be genuinely human.”
—Sean Smith
trina Trends in the Older Population” at the Mental Health and
Wellness for Older Adults Conference in New Orleans.
•Prof. Jeffrey Cohen (CSOM)
and Institute for Responsible Investment Director David Wood
had their article “The Supply of
Social Corporate Responsibility
Disclosures Among US Firms”
Graduate School of Social Work Dean Alberto Godenzi was elected
president of the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools
of Social Work (NADD) at their annual meeting earlier this month.
Godenzi, who will take on his new role in June for a period of three
years, joins June Gary Hopps — who was GSSW dean from 1986-1998
— as the second NADD president from Boston College.
E x L i br i s
•Prof. Paul Lewis (English) presented the paper “Humor in Politics: Attraction/Repulsion/Persuasion/Denial” and participated in a
roundtable discussion at a conference sponsored by the KnightWallace Fellows, the New Yorker
Cartoon Bank and the Institute
for the Humanities in Ann Arbor,
Mich.
Jobs
The following are among the most
recent positions posted by the Department of Human Resources. For
more information on employment
opportunities at Boston College, see
www.bc.edau/offices/hr/:
Asst./Assoc./Senior Associate Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Development Office
Communications Assistant, Development Office
Support Quality Assurance Analyst,
Information Technology Services
•Center for Work & Family Research Director Jacquelyn James
presented “Responsive Workplaces For Older Workers: Job
Quality, Flexibility and Health”
at the seventh International Conference on Occupational Stress
and Health, “Work, Stress, and
Health 2008: Healthy and Safe
Work Through Research, Practice, and Partnerships,” in Washington, DC.
Circulation Services Supervisor,
School of Theology and Ministry
Library
•Prof. Solomon Friedberg (Mathematics) presented “Weyl group
multiple Dirichlet series and Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns” at a meeting of the American Mathematical Society held at the Courant
Institute, New York University.
Assistant Director, Practicum Experiences and Teacher Induction,
Lynch School of Education
•Center for Work & Family Executive Director Brad Harrington
was invited to be keynote speaker at the College & University
Work/Family Association Conference held this month in Chapel
Hill, NC, where he presented results of the Work-Life Evolution
Study published by the center in
2007.
Research Associate, Connell School
Of Nursing
Collection Development/Reference,
School of Theology and Ministry
Library
Administrative Coordinator, Trends
in Mathematics & Science Study
Administrative
School
Assistant,
Law
Associate Director, Capital Construction
Reserve Services/Interlibrary Loan
Assistant, O’Neill Library
Senior Systems Programmer, Information Technology
Associate Director, STM Continuing Education
Assistant or Associate Director, Annual Giving, Classes, Development
Communications Specialist, Lynch
School of Education
Resident Director, Residential Life
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
march 27, 2008
12
LOOKING AHEAD
READINGS • LECTURES •
DISCUSSION
March 27
•Fitzgibbons Chair Lecture: “Caring, Vulnerability and Community,” with Fitzgibbons Professor of
Philosophy Marina McCoy, 4 p.m.,
Murray Room, Yawkey Center.
•Panel discussion: “Palms, Fish, and
Fountain: The Jewish and Christian Contexts of the Hammam Lif
Synagogue,” 7:30 p.m., Devlin 101.
E-mail artmusm@bc.edu.
•Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy: “Dialectic and
the Purpose of Rhetoric in Plato’s
Phaedrus,” with Harvey Yunis,
Rice University, 7:30 p.m., Walsh
Hall Function Room. See fmwww.
bc.edu/pl/events.html.
March 28
•Lecture: “Acknowledging the Past,
Imagining the Future: Palestinians
and Israelis on 1948 and the Right
of Return,” with Muhammad Jaradat, representative of Badil, noon,
Fulton 145. E-mail saieh@bc.edu.
March 31
•Lecture: “The Prophet of PostCommunism: Vladimir Nabokov
and Russian Politics,” with Nina
Khruscheva, New School World
Policy Institute, 4 p.m., Devlin 101.
E-mail shrayerm@bc.edu.
•Writers Among Us Series: Prof.
Robert Faulkner (Political Science)
reads from his book The Case for
Greatness: Honorable Ambition and
Its Critics, 7 p.m., Devlin 008. Call
ext.2-4820, e-mail andrewma@
bc.edu.
April 1
•Canisius Lecture: The Challenge
to Love, The Call to Hope: Global
Perspectives on Catholic Social Mission, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa,
Honduras, 4:30 p.m., Higgins 300.
Call ext.2-0860, e-mail fleminpb@
bc.edu.
FELINE DANCING
April 2
•Lecture: “Tempests in the Sand:
Unearthing Hurricanes from the
Sedimentary Record,” with Jonathan Woodruff, Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution, noon,
Devlin 201. See www.bc.edu/
schools/cas/geo/seminars.html.
April 3
•Lecture: “New Advances in Stem
Cell Research,” with Ole Isacson,
Harvard Medical School, noon, Boisi Center for Religion and American
Public Life (24 Quincy Road). See
www.bc.edu/centers/boisi/publicevents/current_semester/isacson.html.
Reservations required, call ext.21860, e-mail richarsh@bc.edu.
UNIVERSITY EVENTS
March 29
•Benefit: Annual Boston College
Police Auction, 9 a.m. (preview
of items 8:30 a.m.), Walsh Hall
Function Room. E-mail barbara.
devlin.1@bc.edu.
•Benefit: Boston College Dance
Marathon, noon, Flynn Recreation
Complex, through March 30. See
www.bc.edu/dancemarathon.
MUSIC • ART • PERFORMANCE
7:30 p.m., Heights Room, Corcoran Commons. See omc.bc.edu/
Baldwin.
March 31
•Music in the Afternoon Series:
Cynthia Bravo, voice; James Chubet, piano; Frances Rios, viola; Richard Shaughnesy, clarinet; Nancy
Hair, cello, play works of Brahms,
4:15 p.m., Higgins 300. See www.
bc.edu/schools/cas/music/calendar.
html.
•Film and discussion: “Punching at
the Sun,” with director Tanuj Chopra, 7 p.m., Higgins 300. See www.
punchingatthesun.com/.
April 1
•Gaelic Roots Series: Performance
by Cillian Vallely (Uilleann pipes)
and Kevin Crawford (Irish flute),
7 p.m., Connolly House. See
www.bc.edu/gaelicroots. See www.
bc.edu/schools/cas/music/calendar.
html.
April 2
•Concert by artists-in-residence
Hawthorne String Quartet, featuring works by Mozart, Kalabis and
Gesseney-Rappo, 8 p.m., Gasson
100.
March 27
•Gaelic Roots Series: Performance
by Fulbright Visiting Scholar Jim
O’Brien Moran, Uilleann pipes, 7
p.m., Connolly House. See www.
bc.edu/centers/irish/gaelicroots/.
•Performance: “Impulse,” Boston
College Dance Ensemble, 7 p.m.,
Robsham Theater, through March
29. Tickets $10; proceeds benefit
Boston College Campus School.
See www.bc.edu/clubs/danceensemble.
ONGOING EXHIBITIONS
•“Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire,” at
the McMullen Museum of Art,
through June 6.
•“Boston Through the Eyes of Brehaut,” material from Ellerton J. Brehaut Bostonia Collection of Boston
and Boston history, Burns Library,
through March 30.
•“Reflections of Ireland: Music and
Landscapes,” paintings and drawings by Richard Toomey, Burns
Library, through March 31.
March 28
•Annual Baldwin Awards for Boston College student filmmakers,
For more on Boston College events, see
events.bc.edu or check BCInfo [www.
bc.edu/bcinfo] for updates.
BC SCENES
Music, Old and New
The first two weekends of April will see performances by Boston College’s
newest student music ensemble, and by one of its most established and
popular.
On April 5, award-winning vocal-and-jazz ensemble BC bOp! will be
present its annual spring concert at 8 p.m. in Robsham Theater. This year’s
event, titled “facebOp!,” will feature an eclectic arrangement of Gershwin’s “I
Got Rhythm” and big band favorites like “Basically Blues” made popular by
the Buddy Rich Big Band and the whimsically titled “Blues and the Abscessed
Tooth,” which BC Bands Director Sebastian Bonaiuto explains is a takeoff
on jazz saxophonist Oliver Nelson’s composition “Blues and the Abstract
Truth.”
As the concert and selection titles suggest, BC bOp! members are a creative
lot, Bonaiuto says. The group’s student executive board comes up with a
“theme” and accompanying promotional campaign for each of the Robsham
spring concerts: Last year’s was “Major
League bOp!” while the 2006 concert
was “ibOp!”
Bonaiuto credits Information Technology Assistant Director for Graphic Services Michael Swanson and Assistant Director for Photography Production Service Stephen Vedder for their
work on promotional images and items.
“For ‘Major League bOp!’ Mike and Steve made ‘baseball cards’ of the
members in concert attire posing with their instruments and “stats” on the
back of the cards. We sold them at the concert - they were very popular,” he
says. “Among the most successful images was associated with the ‘06 concert:
‘ibOp!’ a takeoff on ‘iPod.’ We used the ‘silhouette’ concept as in the iPod ads,
but we photographed bOp members playing their instruments and rendered
them in profile.”
For ticket information, call the Robsham Theater box office at ext.2-4002.
The BC Bands Web site is www.bc.edu/bands.
On Sunday, April 13, The Boston Collegium — BC’s first student Early
Music ensemble — makes its concert debut at 3 p.m. in St. Mary’s Chapel.
The theme of the concert is Latin through the ages, and the program will
begin with a 13th-century Gregorian chant, and encompass Renaissance- and
Baroque-era music, with selections from Bach and Mozart.
The 30-member group was established thanks to the efforts of junior Daniel Gostin, an accomplished musician and veteran of the University Wind
Ensemble and Chorale.
“I was really ambitious with this first concert,” says Gostin, who became
interested in Renaissance music in high school in New Britain, Conn., as a
member of a madrigal group. “I wanted to highlight the time span of Early
Music, some of the greatest composers during those centuries, and the importance of liturgical music, since we are at a Catholic university.”
Music Department Chairman and Canisius Professor T. Frank Kennedy,
SJ, says the group is “a welcome performance ensemble on the campus. I
established the Music at St. Mary’s Series as principally a showcase for Early
Music performance, so it is especially gratifying to have a student group pick
up on the performance of the Early Music repertory. This group points towards the depth of involvement and development of our students with music
of the western art tradition.”
Early Music is commonly defined as European classical music from the
Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Baroque. Researchers, notes music
major Gostin, include classical-era music up to Mozart.
The group’s name — in addition to being a play on “Boston College”
— carries a special meaning, he notes. “In Bach’s day, a ‘collegium’ was a
group of peers who got together to play music and the size of the group
depended on the specific pieces they played, which is the type of flexibility I
wanted for the group. The use of ‘Boston’ is also meant to include members
of other universities and the surrounding community.”
—Rosanne Pellegrini and Sean Smith
Next at Burns: Fighting Irishmen
This student was a mane attraction at the University’s 35th annual Middlemarch Ball, which took place at O’Connell House on March
15. Nearly 300 students attended the event, which this year had a “Welcome to Las Vegas” theme. (Photo by Christopher Huang)
The widely popular exhibition “Fighting Irishmen: Celebrating Celtic
Prizefighters 1820 to Present” will make its Massachusetts debut at Burns
Library next week, fresh from long runs at New York City’s Irish Arts Center
in 2006 and South Street Seaport Museum in 2007.
Presented in collaboration with the Irish Arts Center and exhibit curator
James J. Houlihan, the exhibit, which is free and open to the public, will be
on view at Burns from April 1 through Sept. 5.
“Fighting Irishmen” is comprised of an eclectic collection of boxing artifacts, including prints, photographs, paintings, robes, gloves, boxing bags,
films and other items that offer “a veritable stroll down memory lane for fight
fans and historians alike,” exhibit organizers say.
New England boxers are prominent in the exhibit, including legendary
world heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan of Roxbury — who reportedly
attended Boston College for a short time — and three-time New England
Golden Gloves winner “Irish” Micky Ward of Lowell, who is the subject of
the upcoming feature film “The Fighter.”
Besides artifacts and pictures on display — including Sullivan’s fur coat,
a blazer specially made for Jack Dempsey and the mummified right arm of
19th century Irish legend Dan Donnelly — visitors will be able to view video
of historic fight films provided by the Boxing Hall of Champions during their
tours of the exhibit.
For information call ext.2-3282 or see www.bc.edu/burns.
—Office of Public Affairs