The Boston College
Chronicle
BC Heading South?
National profile
strengthening below
Mason-Dixon line
By Sean Smith
Chronicle Editor
Time was, about 25 years ago,
when February was a “sleepy time”
for his office, recalls Director of
Undergraduate Admission John L.
Mahoney Jr.
It was an era when New England was Boston College’s primary
recruiting ground, and so most
prospective students did not have
to travel very far to visit.
Now, there are more high
school seniors expressing interest
in BC than ever before, and more
of them from outside New England — making the February high
school vacation period a prime opportunity for campus tours.
So much for sleepy time.
“We’re inundated,” says Ma-
honey. “Since there are great colleges all around Boston, students
and their families try to pack in as
many visits as possible when they
come to town. They’re investing
two valuable hours, so we have to
make sure to give them a useful,
and enjoyable, overview of BC in
that span.”
If a busy February helps BC
recruit an outstanding freshman
class, though, Mahoney and his
staff are quite happy to bear it.
Happily for BC, and for Admissions, the Class of 2011 reflects
some highly positive long and
short-term trends in the quality
and diversity of its student body
[see sidebar].
Administrators say application
and enrollment figures clearly suggest BC has solid footing in such
high-recruitment states as California, Texas and Illinois. What’s
more, another region has emerged
as a potential area of strength: the
South.
october 18, 2007-vol. 16 no. 4
Snapshots of the Class of 2011
“Boston College is a school
where more and more of the
nation’s excellent students want
to go,” says Dean for Enrollment
Management Robert Lay, “They
hear about the distinctive JesuitCatholic tradition, the great reputation, the accomplished faculty
— it adds up.”
While a solid majority of those
excellent students are still from
New England and the Middle Atlantic (a combined 75 percent in
2006), Lay and Mahoney point
out that BC is increasingly the
school of choice for high school
seniors from other areas of the US.
Since 1980, there have been notable jumps among other regions,
especially from the Southwest and
West — including California and
Texas — whose representation in
the BC student body has risen
from 1 to 9 percent.
Now it appears to be the South
that is BC’s next prime recruitContinued on page 4
Rose Lincoln
*This year’s 2,291-member
freshman class was drawn from
the highest number of applications ever received by the University, 28,850, an increase of 9
percent over the previous year;
the Carroll School of Management recorded the biggest jump
in applications, 13 percent over
2006, among BC’s undergraduate schools.
*BC’s acceptance rate of 27
percent was the lowest in its
history, and put the University
among the top 30 most selective institutions. Going by mean
SAT scores, the 2007 BC freshmen class would rank within the
top 10 among all SAT-taking
students.
*Almost 28 percent of the
2007 applicant pool for BC
were AHANA students — a
14 percent rise from last year
— and the same figure holds
among the freshman class.
*Two hundred of this year’s
freshmen — 10 percent — attended Jesuit high schools. “BC
believes strongly in the quality
of education in Jesuit schools,
and we recruit heavily there,”
says Director of Undergraduate
Admission John L. Mahoney
Jr.
*Those freshmen who applied for financial aid will receive $17 million in need-based
institutional grants. “This is
keeping with the need-blind
philosophy of BC,” says Mahoney. “That’s an extraordinary
commitment of funds. Our
hope is that, in the upcoming
capital campaign, people will
contribute to continue building
our endowment for financial
aid, so a BC education will
remain accessible to students
from lower-income families.”
*There are five more males
than females in the freshman
class, a 50.1 percent to 49.9
percent difference.
*In addition to 46 states,
Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands
and District of Columbia, this
year’s freshman class includes
students from 18 foreign countries.
By Kathleen Sullivan
Staff Writer
William J. Cunningham Jr. ’57 with the stone from Gasson Tower bearing his father’s name.
A BC Family Legacy Etched in Stone
Good memory, good luck cement a happy discovery for alumnus
By Reid Oslin
Staff Writer
A random request, some incredible timing and a workman’s
good memory has enabled a
1957 Boston College graduate
to keep his late father’s Gasson
Tower legacy alive.
When William J. Cunningham Jr. ’57 read that the famed
campus tower landmark was beginning to undergo extensive
reconstruction this past summer, he thought back to a story
his late father, Bill Sr. ’26, had
INSIDE:
often told the family about how,
during his undergraduate days, he
had written his name and graduation year on a stone high inside
the building’s belfry.
“When I was a little boy, my
father would get letters from students at BC who had climbed up
into the tower and had seen his
name and ‘BC ’26’ on the wall
and would ask if he was the ‘Bill
Cunningham’ who had written
it,” Cunningham recalls.
“My father was a schoolteacher
in the city of Boston who became
headmaster at Roslindale High
Grad housing proves popular;
BC to host gambling forum (page 3)
School,” he says, “and he also
loved Boston College.
“He would write back to the
young men and not just say ‘Yes,
I am that person,’ but being a
good teacher, he would always
explain what BC was like when
he went there when it was just
Bapst [Library], St. Mary’s and
the Tower Building.”
The elder Cunningham was
long active in alumni affairs as
class correspondent, volunteer
fund-raiser and long-standing
Eagle sports fan.
Continued on page 5
Immigrants’ stories on film (page 4)
William F. Connell School of
Nursing Dean Barbara Hazard
will retire at the end of the 200708 academic year, announced
Provost and Dean of Faculties
Cutberto Garza, who has formed
a search committee to identify her
successor.
Hazard has been dean and
professor at the nursing school
since coming to Boston College
in 1991. Her tenure as dean has
been marked by a strengthening
of the graduate programs in nursing, an increase in research funding awarded CSON faculty and
a growing national recognition of
the school’s caliber. In its most
recent ranking of graduate nursing programs, US News & World
Report placed the Connell School
of Nursing at a tie for 26th in
the nation, making it the highest
ranked Catholic school of nursing
in the country.
Under Hazard’s leadership,
CSON received final trustee approval for its doctoral program,
added master’s degree programs
in Nurse Anesthesia and Palliative Care, established the popular
master’s entry program for college
graduates without nursing degrees,
and endowed its first professor-
Gary Gilbert
CSON Dean to Retire
at Academic Year’s End
Barbara Hazard
ship, the Lelia Holden Carroll
Professorship in Nursing.
“I didn’t know when I started
that I would be at the School of
Nursing for 17 years,” reflected
Hazard in a recent interview. “I
never felt the need to look at
[another job opportunity] because
there was always something new
and exciting taking place here.
This has been a very good fit for
me.”
Garza said, “Barbara Hazard
has served the Connell School of
Nursing and Boston College exceedingly well. Her effectiveness
and that of the CSON faculty and
students have enabled much as evidenced by the school’s reputation
Continued on page 3
Ellen Winner puts spotlight on
arts education (page 5)
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
october 18, 2007
AROUND
CAMPUS
Keeping watch
Members of the Boston College
community held a candle-light vigil
for the people of Burma in the Quad
on Oct. 9, in the aftermath of the
Burmese government’s brutal suppression of pro-democracy demonstrators.
The event featured an opening
prayer by Rev. Stanislaus Alla, SJ, a
member of the BC Jesuit Community, and a talk by Assoc. Prof. John
Makransky (Theology), a Tibetan
Buddhist lama. Amnesty International USA Northeast Regional Director Joshua Rubenstein also offered
an overview of the political and social
situation in Burma.
Vigil co-organizers Leon Ratz and
Kyle Shybunko, both freshmen, said
the idea for the event came about
when the two friends were sitting
in the Medeiros Hall lounge, reading the New York Times’ coverage
Customers peruse the goods at the Farmer’s Market earlier this month at Corcoran Commons. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
Market report
A weekly “Farmer’s Market” featuring fresh corn, eggplant, zucchini, lettuce, apples,
pumpkins, Swiss chard and
dozens of other locally-grown
produce items proved to be a
big hit with the Boston College
community.
Operating from a tent on
Corcoran Commons each
Thursday afternoon for five
weeks this fall, the market
drew more than 350 shoppers
a week, according to University
Dining Services administrators
who organized the project.
“I have always had a lot
of interest in supporting local
By the numbers
In the wake of the recent Student Services report on Boston
College’s most popular majors,
Economics Department chairman
Prof. Marvin Kraus points out
that when it comes to calculating
students taking economics, you
have to count twice.
That is, Kraus explains, his
department’s majors include students from both the College of
Arts and Sciences (551) and the
Carroll School of Management
(130) — technically, CSOM students have concentrations, rather
than majors.
The total of 681 students majoring or concentrating in economics is the fifth highest at BC,
and the most since the late 1980s,
he says.
Economics’ popularity, Kraus
says, “in large part has to do
with job prospects. Some of the
same trends, such as growth in
the financial services sector of the
economy, that have been contributing to the growing popularity
of finance [currently BC’s most-
Bugging out
and sustainable agriculture,” said
Dining Services Director Helen
Wechsler. “But it was sometimes
difficult to get the kinds of fresh
produce that we wanted.”
Earlier this year, Wechsler
reached an agreement with Costa
Produce, one of BC’s major food
vendors, to provide locally grown
products on a weekly basis and the
idea took off immediately.
“We had no expectation that it
would be this successful,” she said.
“It has just been great.”
Students on a recent “market day” agreed with Wechsler’s
appraisal of the market concept.
“It’s a really cool idea,” said Frank
Jackson ’08, an economics major
enrolled undergraduate program]
as an area of concentration have
been contributing to the growing
number of students who choose to
major in economics. Starting salaries for college graduates with a
bachelor’s degree in economics are
relatively high compared to most
other fields, and in the increasingly uncertain world in which we
live, students find the flexibility
that economics as a major offers
appealing.”
from Shrewsbury, Mass.
“Not too many of us have
cars, so it’s hard to get to a grocery store to pick up this kind
of food,” he said as he filled his
basket with corn, apples, peppers and a head of lettuce in
preparation for cooking dinner
for his five suitemates in Rubenstein Hall. “I think we’ll start
with a salad,” he mused, “and
then maybe sauté some peppers.
Everything looks pretty good.”
Wechsler said she plans to
reopen the Farmer’s Market
in the springtime when the local harvests will provide freshly
picked carrots, radishes and peas
among other items for BC’s
would-be culinary artists.
—RO
What’s more, he adds, some
contemporary commentators —
notably Steven Levitt and Stephen
Dubner, authors of the popular book Freakonomics — have
brought a more accessible, even
edgy, perspective to economics.
“Job prospects may be the
main reason for the trend, but I
think that at least some part of the
story is that the scope of the field
has broadened into areas that have
attracted students intellectually.”
—SS
Forum Tonight Examines
Tragedy of Cluster Bombs
A special presentation at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Devlin 008
will offer personal insights into the tragic effects of cluster
bombs.
Four speakers from Laos and Lebanon, two of whom lost
family members to cluster bombs, will speak on the impact
these deadly weapons have had on their families, communities and countries.
Sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee, the
event also features an accompanying photo exhibition, “Daily
Terror: Walking in War’s Aftermath.”
For more information, see www.mcc.org/clusterbombs/.
—Office of Public Affairs
They study things that most people find, well, kind of gross: ticks,
mosquitoes, worms and microscopic
protozoa. It is a dirty job, but parasitologists have to do it.
This Saturday, Boston College
will host the annual meeting of the
New England Association of Parasitologists, a group that includes the
region’s leading researchers into the
biologically complex and globally significant parasites that transmit diseases
to millions of people across the world
every year.
BC faculty members who conduct
research in this area include assistant
professors Jeff Chuang and Marc-Jan
Gubbels (Biology), who have planned
this year’s conference. Chuang studies
the DNA sequence of Plasmodium,
the parasite causing malaria, in an
effort to find a weak region of the
parasite’s genome that could be targeted to control the spread of the
disease. Gubbels studies Toxoplasma
gondii, parasitic protozoa found in cat
feces and undercooked meat that pose
significant risks to pregnant women
and individuals with compromised
immune systems.
Chuang and Gubbels say parasitology is enjoying something of a renaissance through attention brought
by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, growing concern over the toll
parasites take on public health in developing countries, and an explosion
in the volume of data available to
researchers through gene sequencing
advances in recent years.
Still, Chuang recognizes that this
province of biological research may
turn some off.
“We’re biologists,” he said. “We
study these things because they are
interesting and they are important to
our health. It probably helps that they
are kind of gross, otherwise we might
not be too interested.”
Information on the conference is
available at www.bc.edu/biology/.
—EH
of the atrocities in Burma. Ratz and
Shybunko decided to organize a rally
“to inform others about what’s going
on in Burma and to show solidarity
with the imprisoned monks,” says
Ratz.
With the help of Paul Wendel
’08, president of the Ignatian Society
of Boston College, the pair recruited
speakers and organized the vigil.
The Buddhism Club of BC created
bracelets for vigil participants to keep
as mementos.
“It was really wonderful to see
so many people show up on a cold
night in the middle of mid-term season to lend their support for people
thousands of miles away,” says Ratz.
“One of the aims of the vigil was to
help inform the BC community of
the situation in Burma and to send
a message that Boston College, along
with the world, is watching and praying for the people in Burma.
“While the situation might no
longer be a headline on CNN, that
makes it all the more important for
us to continue to call attention to the
situation in Burma.”
—SS
The Boston College
Chronicle
Director of Public Affairs
Jack Dunn
Deputy Director of
Public AFFAIRS
Patricia Delaney
Editor
Sean Smith
Contributing Staff
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
02467 (617)552-3350. Distributed
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Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467.
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
October 18, 2007
Opening the Doors
University’s grad
student housing is
gaining in popularity
By Reid Oslin
Staff Writer
The University’s graduate student housing program – now in
its second year of operation – is attracting the attention of students
from across the country, and
across the world, who are looking
to Boston College for their postgraduate studies.
BC has leased seven apartment
buildings containing 186 units
in the Cleveland Circle area and
offers rental arrangements on a variety of residences to grad students
looking for a home near campus.
“I think that the graduate housing initiative is really intact here,”
says graduate housing property
manager Daymyen Layne. “We
have doubled our occupancy over
the first year.
“Students obviously have a need
for housing,” he says, “but that
especially goes for international
students who may not know a lot
about the student housing culture
of the United States. I deal with the properties and their surrounda lot of students from places like ings are well maintained.
“The rents are based on the
China or India who have no idea
how to get housing. It makes it market values of apartments in
so much easier on those kids to the Brighton area,” he says. “Some
have someone who can walk them are a bit pricey [rents range from
$875 to $2,175 per month], but
through the process.”
Layne points out that students students can share the one- and
from American schools also benefit two-bedroom apartments to help
from the University’s involvement cut the costs.”
Each studio, one-bedroom or
in graduate housing. “Graduate
students who have already been two-bedroom apartment is furnished with
here in the states
find it easier to be “I didn’t have a lot of time to couches, armchairs, a dropunder BC’s ‘umgo and search for an apartleaf
dining
brella,’” he says.
“There’s really ment...I knew if it was Boston room table and
chairs, bureaus
some comfort for
College that I could trust it,
and beds. “All
not only the grad
utilities are instudents but for a
and even without looking at
cluded and we
lot of the parents
who are happy to the apartment I would be OK throw in the
cable and inknow that there
signing a lease for it.”
ternet,” Layne
students will be
under that ‘um- —Law student Aimee Hartono adds.
Such
a
brella.’”
housing arThe
buildings – located on Embassy Road, rangement was perfect for Aimee
Commonwealth Avenue, Orkney Hartono of Los Angeles, who is
Road and Strathmore Road — are a first year Law School student.
leased from the Mount Vernon “I didn’t have a lot of time to go
Co. and Layne works with com- and search for an apartment,” she
pany officials to make sure that says. “First of all, I knew if it was
Conference Looks at Impact of Gambling
The role of gaming in American
culture, politics, society and family
life will be under scrutiny at Boston College next week as the Boisi
Center for Religion and American
Public Life hosts a major public
conference titled “Gambling and
the American Moral Landscape” on
Oct. 25 and 26.
An increasingly high-profile issue nationally and one at the top
of the public agenda in many states
— most recently Massachusetts,
where Governor Deval Patrick has
proposed selling three licenses to
build the state’s first casinos — legalized gambling is a divisive topic,
polarizing those who hail it as an
economic boost for state and local
coffers and those who contend it
preys on addictive tendencies and
the desperation of the poor.
Academics and policymakers are
expected to gather at BC for the
two-day event, which will bring
together authorities from across the
nation to discuss the new politics
and policy of gambling from casinobased to on-line, state lotteries as
revenue, the role of federal regulation, Indian gaming, risk taking and
addictive behavior.
Other topics to be covered include the effect of gambling on
families, gambling and morality,
religious views of gambling, gambling in society and culture, as an
individual behavior vs. one with
social impact, and why gambling as
an issue has been ignored by both
the political right and left.
Speakers will include nationally noted gaming expert Adj. Assoc. Prof. Richard McGowan, SJ,
(CSOM), author of the book State
Lotteries and Legalized Gambling:
Painless Revenue or Painful Mirage?
Alan Wolfe and Judith Wilt are among the Boston College faculty members speaking at “Gambling and the American Moral Landscape.” (File photos)
and the forthcoming work Dividing
the Spoils: States and the Gambling
Industry. Boisi Center Director
Prof. Alan Wolfe (Political Science)
also will offer remarks.
Other Boston College participants will be Theology Department
chairman Prof. Kenneth Himes,
OFM, O’Neill Professor of American Politics R. Shep Melnick, Prof.
Joseph Quinn (Economics), Newton College Alumnae Professor of
Western Culture Judith Wilt and
Prof. Dwayne Carpenter (Romance
Languages and Literatures).
A schedule of conference events
can be found on-line at www.
bc.edu/centers/boisi/publicevents/
current_semester/gambling/schedule.html.
—Office of Public Affairs
Hazard to Step Down
Continued from page 1
and national standing. [CSON]’s
impressive profile and trajectory set
a high bar for our collective task in
finding a worthy successor.”
Joining Garza on the search
committee are: CSON faculty
members Asst. Prof. Angela Amar,
Assoc. Prof. Joyce Pulcini, Associate Dean of the Undergraduate
Program and Assoc. Prof. Catherine Read, Asst. Prof. Danny Willis
and Director of Nursing Research
Prof. Barbara Wolfe; Graduate
School of Social Work Dean Alberto Godenzi; Senior Lecturer
Vincent O’Reilly (CSOM); Walsh
Professor of Bioethics John Paris,
SJ, and Mairead Hickey ’72 of
Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Hazard said one of her fondest BC memories is of the day the
school was named after its benefactor the late William F. Connell
’59.
“I know I’ll feel sad on my last
day but I also know this is the
right time for me [to retire],” said
Hazard, who plans to live in her
home state of Rhode Island and
travel. “BC has been a happy place
for me.”
This apartment building on Commonwealth is one of seven BC has leased to offer
graduate students a place to live. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
Boston College that I could trust
it, and even without looking at the
apartment I would be OK signing
a lease for it.
“By the time I was looking for
housing, I was pretty late in the
process, and [the Office of Residential Life] was able to help me
find a roommate.” Coming from
California without an automobile, Hartono says that she didn’t
want the hassle of trying to buy
furniture in Boston, so finding
a furnished unit was especially
helpful.
“We are reaching out to all
of the graduate students and letting them know that this service
is there for them,” Layne says.
“It’s all about building a graduate
school community here.
“That’s where I come in,” he
says. “I am trying to make my
mark by making these graduate
students feel like they are a part of
the BC culture.”
Layne says he hopes to work
with the Office of Graduate Student Life to institute a series of
social events and other activities
for residents of the grad housing
units. “One of the things I hear
when I talk to students is that they
really don’t know how to meet
other students. We have to go one
step further to bring these into a
collective place.
“We are still working on putting the pieces of the puzzle together,” Layne says. “But the potential of graduate student housing is phenomenal.”
BC Football Ranks Third
— In Graduation Rates
The Boston College football
program ranks third among
Division I football-playing institutions in graduation success
rate (GSR), according to data
released by the NCAA earlier
this month.
In addition, 16 BC sports
teams recorded a 100 percent
GSR score.
The GSR — developed in response to college and university
presidents’ requests for graduation data that more accurately
reflects mobility among today’s
college students — measures
graduation rates at Division I
colleges and universities and includes students transferring into
the institutions. The GSR also
allows institutions to subtract
student-athletes who leave prior
to graduation as long as they
would have been academically
eligible to compete had they
remained.
The BC football team scored
a 93 percent GSR, tied with
Duke, Notre Dame and Stanford as the third highest in the
country. Only Navy (95) and
Northwestern (94) received a
higher GSR score than BC. BC’s
GSR is the highest of any of the
top 25 teams in this week’s Associated Press college football
poll, in which the Eagles are
ranked third.
Sixteen Boston College teams
recorded a 100 percent GSR
score, including baseball, men’s
cross country/track, men’s fencing, men’s golf, men’s skiing,
men’s tennis, women’s basketball, women’s crew/rowing,
women’s fencing, women’s golf,
women’s ice hockey, women’s
lacrosse, women’s skiing, women’s soccer, women’s swimming
and women’s volleyball.
“Once again, we are extremely proud of the accomplishments
of our student-athletes in the
classroom,” Director of Athletics Gene DeFilippo said. “These
statistics show that we take the
term `student-athlete’ very seriously at Boston College.”
More information about the
GSR report may be found at the
NCAA’s website, www.ncaa.
org.
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
october 18, 2007
Learning About the ‘People We See Every Day’
Grad student’s film
takes revealing look at
BC immigrant workers
By Ed Hayward
Staff Writer
Well before immigration policy
jumped to the forefront of America’s domestic policy debate in the
spring of 2006, Susan Legere, a
doctoral student in sociology, saw
a story to tell in the experiences of
the immigrants who work the jobs
that make Boston College run on
a daily basis.
Now, against the backdrop of a
fiery political debate, Legere’s fiveyear project has produced a 50minute documentary, “Immigrant
Reflections,” which chronicles the
experiences of three campus service workers who are immigrants
to the US.
This Saturday, Oct. 20, the
film will debut at the Boston Latino International Film Festival,
where Legere and her subjects will
also take part in a discussion about
the film and the issues it raises.
Legere describes the project
as an opportunity to learn more
about people who might otherwise go unnoticed on campus.
“Here are people we see every
day, but don’t really see,” Legere
says. “They make the place run,
but they are in the background.
So this is a chance to learn more
about these people.”
The novice filmmaker, herself
a first-generation college student,
says the stories of the three subjects all reflect a common theme.
“I think each one is a striking example of upward mobility and an
incredible work ethic,” she says.
•Brigida “Vicky” Miranda is a
native of Guatemala who works
full-time in Dining Services. She
and her husband, Cristobal Hernandez, who also works on campus as a security attendant for
the Boston College Police Department, have two daughters. Miranda is now a student in the Woods
College of Advancing Studies.
•Jorge Chacon, a native of Peru
who had earned an accounting degree before immigrating to the US
in his mid-20s, works in Facilities
Services. He and his wife have
two sons, one of whom graduated
from the Carroll School of Management in 2007.
•Manuel “Manny” Alves, a native of Cape Verde, moved to Boston when he was 10. A graduate of
the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst, he was a campus shuttle
bus coordinator for Boston Coach
before receiving a promotion to
supervisor. He and his wife have
(L-R) Susan Legere with the three subjects of her film, Manuel Alves, Jorge
Chacon and Brigida Miranda. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
a daughter.
In the film, the three subjects recall their journeys to the
US, reunions with parents who
spent years establishing their new
homes, and the challenges they
faced across issues of language,
race and class as they settled in
their new country.
Despite hardships, Chacon is
grateful for his adopted country.
“This country gave me a lot of opportunities to be something. The
main thing it gave me: the chance
to prove to me [that] I’m good.”
Miranda and Chacon recall
encountering rude or indifferent
behavior from some students, but
note that those who greet them by
name or say “Thank you” for their
efforts can make their day.
When she got the idea for
her project, Legere, encouraged by
Prof. Pamela Berger (Fine Arts),
turned to the Jacques Salmanowitz Program for Moral Courage
in Film, directed by Prof. John
Michalczyk (Fine Arts), where she
received technical advice and access to the equipment necessary to
make the documentary.
Michalczyk says the documentary succeeds in exploring what
the largely unseen dimensions of
immigrants’ lives in Boston and at
Boston College
“She does a very, very fine job
in terms of tapping the resources
of these individuals who can give
us a better understanding” of the
lives of immigrants in the Boston
area,” he says. “We’re considered
an ivory tower and we sometimes
never reflect on people who come
here who have these challenges. I
think her documentary will help
us come to a new understanding.”
For Legere, the project amounted to learning by doing: securing
subjects, conducting interviews,
wielding the video and sound
equipment. She did enlist the help
of professional editor Eric Kaighin
of Living Reel Productions, and
received a $500 grant from the
University to defray some costs.
“I think this is a fantastic opportunity made available by BC,”
says Legere. “If you have the interest to make a documentary about
an important social topic, the opportunity is there for you.”
“Immigrant Reflections” plays
at the Boston Latino International
Film Festival at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20, at Boston University’s Howard Thurman Center, 775
Commonwealth Avenue. For more
information, see www.bliff.org.
Boston College Continuing to Attract National Attention
Continued from page 1
ing ground. Six percent of the BC
2006 undergraduate population
was from the South, compared
to 2 percent in 1980. States with
significant enrollment increases at
BC during the last quarter-century
include Florida (65 in 1980 to 247
last year), Maryland (109 to 230)
and Virginia (41 to 99). North
Carolina, which had all of one
student at BC in 1980, last year
sent 45.
California used to be a tough
place for BC to recruit, says
Enrollment Management Dean
Robert Lay. “Now, California
makes up the fifth largest contingent in our freshman class.”
Recent media reports have suggested an “Atlantic Coast Conference effect” at work: BC’s move
to the historically southern-based
athletic organization in 2005, the
theory goes, has opened up a fast
lane to Chestnut Hill from below
the Mason-Dixon Line. And in
fact, applications from students in
ACC states have increased markedly during the past four years
— the period covering BC’s transition to the ACC: South Carolina,
70.5 percent; North Carolina, 55.6
percent; Georgia, 35.8; Florida,
33.1; Virginia, 32.1 percent and
Maryland, 28.4.
But administrators caution
against reading too much into the
ACC factor. They note that the
actual enrollment of students from
ACC states hasn’t significantly risen during the same period. More
to the point, says Mahoney, since
the South’s college-age population
is the fastest growing in the counKelly Connolly is a freshman
from Sarasota, Fla., one of 82
members of the Class of 2011 from
the Sunshine State — and one of a
growing number of students from
the South who are showing interest in Boston College. Connolly,
an English major, recently talked
about her impressions of BC and
what led her to enroll here.
When you started thinking
about colleges, did you figure
on staying close to home, or at
least in the same geographical
region?
I never imagined staying close
to home. I’ve lived in Florida my
whole life, and I really wanted to
go someplace with seasons! New
England was always my ideal
location. I discovered how amazing Boston is after my eighth
grade class took a trip here, and
I’ve been in love with this city
ever since.
What, if anything, did you
know about BC before you applied?
At first I thought BC was
much more “downtown,” rather
than having its own separate
campus. I wanted my school to
feel like a community, so it took
a while before I realized that I
could get that here! But even
before I fully understood BC,
try, colleges and universities could
expect to see increased applications
from that region.
Still, Mahoney and Lay say,
shifting demographics in the South
makes BC’s increased presence
there a potential advantage. Where
Southern states in the past tended
to be “the least likely to export their
students elsewhere,” says Lay —
the look of the campus and the
surrounding area, along with
the fact that it’s right on the T.
The people who spoke at my
information session were so passionate about the school and the
ideals it promotes. I could see
myself here.
Ultimately, I decided to come
to BC because the academics are
great, it has immediate access to
Boston, and the students really
care about making a difference.
You’ve been through orientation, and have a month of
classes under your belt. Has
your impression changed?
I’d heard of it: my Dad went
to a Jesuit university and he
was always trying to talk me
into one.
BC attracted my attention
because it’s so close to Boston
but it still has its own campus
— which is gorgeous — and it
feels like a community. I also
liked the Jesuit aspect.
What impact did visiting
the campus have on your impression of BC? What clinched
the deal as far your decision to
enroll?
Visiting BC moved it a lot
higher up on my list. I loved
My opinion of BC is more
realistic now. When I made my
college decision, it was based
only on what I’d read in the
brochures and heard about on
my tour. BC students do work
hard and they care about helping others, but they also love to
have fun!
In general, does living here
feel “different” than living in
Florida?
How is BC different from
home? There are no palm trees
here.
citing the presence of outstanding
state universities as well as students’
ties to regional culture and tradition — that is now changing.
“We went through a similar
transition with California,” says
Lay. “It was tough to get students
to come here, but over time, you
saw the state become more diverse,
more affluent and therefore, more
mobile. Now, California makes up
the fifth largest contingent in our
freshman class.”
Lay points to another feature
of the changing South: a growing
Hispanic population, one that is
predominantly Catholic. “It stands
to reason that BC, as the only
Catholic school in a major athletic
conference that is anchored in the
South, would certainly draw attention.”
Administrators say the academic
benefits of joining the ACC, though
often overlooked, figure greatly into
the equation: The prospect of participating in partnerships, collaboratives and other programs shared
by BC with its ACC affiliates —
such as the annual “Meeting of
the Minds” undergraduate research
conference — can be a most attractive one for incoming freshmen.
“The ACC’s aspiration to enlarge the contacts among the member universities, sweeping well beyond just athletics,” says Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic
Affairs Donald Hafner, “almost
guarantees that we will all have
arresting confrontations with fresh
ideas, precisely because we are so
different.”
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
October 18, 2007
The Art of Teaching Art
“The fact is, no
one had really
looked at what arts
education actually did for kids.
Until you see
what’s been learned
through arts education, you can’t
make assumptions.”
She caught flak for saying what arts education does
not do for students; now, Ellen Winner is out to
show why — and how — arts should be taught
By Sean Smith
Chronicle Editor
It’s as if Prof. Ellen Winner
(Psychology) spent the last several years with a bulls-eye on her
back and a sign reading “No. 1
enemy of arts education” around
her neck.
That might be an exaggeration, but Winner certainly has
weathered a storm of controversy
since she and Lois Hetland, an associate professor at the Massachusetts College of Art, published a
study in 2000 concluding that arts
classes do not improve students’
overall academic performance.
“Afterwards, I got a call from
a representative of a foundation,
who said, ‘This study will damage arts education,’” recalls Winner. The oft-heard axiom that
involvement in visual or performing arts boosts a child’s grades or
test scores across the spectrum,
arts advocates told Winner, “is
our only tool — whether it’s true
or not.”
At the institute where she
spent her sabbatical not long after publishing the study, Winner
often felt like a persona non grata:
“Some people thought I was antiarts because if I asked the question
whether arts boosted test scores,
this must mean I thought this was
all the arts were for.
“Others thought that by re-
porting arts don’t increase test
scores, I was devaluing the arts. I
couldn’t win once I had asked the
forbidden question.”
So, Winner would like to set
the record straight: She is an
avowed supporter of the arts, and
of arts education. Period.
“What I’m against,” she says,
“is spurious arguments. This
whole idea of arts education providing the means to excel in other
subjects sounds so easy and tempting, but on close inspection it’s
just not so. More to the point, if
all we want the arts for is to improve kids’ performance in math,
why not just spend more time on
math?
“The fact is, no one had really
looked at what arts education actually did for kids,” says Winner,
who notes that earlier in her life
she studied to be a painter. “Until you see what’s been learned
through arts education, you can’t
make assumptions.”
Now, Winner and her colleagues — Hetland, Shirley Veenema and Kimberly Sheridan, who
along with Winner are current or
former researchers at the Harvard
Graduate School of Education
Project Zero — seek to throw a
spotlight on arts education.
Their newly published book
Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits
of Visual Arts Education offers results of the first in-depth research
—Ellen Winner
Photo by Lee Pellegrini
on the “habits of the mind” teachers are striving to instill when they
teach the visual arts. By doing so,
says Winner, the study can provide arts teachers clear, researchbased language with which to develop curricula, shape and refine
practices, and work with policymakers and other educators.
Based on close studies of classes
at the Boston Arts Academy and
Walnut Hill School, the authors
analyze methods of teaching pottery, painting, drawing, sculpture
and other forms of artistic expression. The book introduces the
concept of the Studio Thinking
Framework, which details the
underlying cognitive and social
skills students can develop in welltaught visual arts classes.
“As part of this framework,”
explains Winner, “there are eight
No Stone’s Throw Away, Fortunately
Continued from page 1
Although the younger Cunningham says he never visited inside the tower himself, he says
he always wondered about his
father’s penciled handiwork on
the steeple wall.
“Last May, I was on campus
doing some fundraising for
the Class of 1957’s anniversary,” he says. “So I just
walked over to the construction site, opened the
door to the trailer, and saw
that there were about 12
people sitting around the
table in a meeting.”
Included in the group
was Bill Whall, a principal of Phoenix Bay State
Construction Co., a Boston
firm that specializes in stone
reconstruction projects and
is the main contractor for
the BC project, architect
Wendall Kalsow and BC
Project Manager Jake Mycofsky.
“When they finished their
meeting, I told them the story
about the piece of stone up there
that my father had written on,”
Cunningham says.
As Whall recalls, “We could
easily see what a great meaning
that had for him.”
Project superintendent Richie
Kopacz, who also happened to be
sitting in the construction planning meeting, remembered that
he had seen that exact stone in
the wall at the top of the spiral
staircase leading to the roof of the
tower – high above the bell area
where hundreds of students and
“What are the chances that
someone would have remembered that one stone?”
says Bill Whall, a principal
of the company that is the
main contractor for the
Gasson Tower renovation.
“It’s really like finding a
needle in a haystack.”
alumni had signed their names in
pencil and chalk during the tower’s nearly century-old lifespan.
“He had written his name on a
flat surface,” Kopacz said. “I knew
I had seen the name at the top of
the tower.”
Adds Whall, “What are the
chances that someone would have
remembered that one stone? It’s
really like finding a needle in a
haystack.”
Several weeks later, the 800lb. stone had been removed, three
coats of preservative had been applied to seal the writing permanently, and workmen used a hightech cutting tool to “slice off” a
125-lb., four-inch slab that they
presented to Cunningham.
“This one tugged at our
heart-strings,” says Whall.
“Luckily, the timing was
right and we had the technology to make it happen. It
was a great pleasure to give
Mr. Cunningham that piece
of stone.”
Whall said that if Cunningham had made his request a week or two later,
the stone would have likely
already been sent to be recycled in a landfill. “As it
turned out, it was one of the
first stones to come down,”
Whall says.
Cunningham says that he
is thinking of adding his own
name and Boston College graduation date, those of his two brothers, daughter and two sons-in-law
to the stone and eventually making a table out of it.
“I just wish that it were a
little more portable,” he laughs.
“Wouldn’t that be a great thing
for a tailgate?”
‘studio habits of the mind’ fostered
through these visual arts classes,
such as observation, expression,
reflection and envisioning.
“Students also engage and persist – learn to develop focus and
other mental states conducive to
working and persevering at art
tasks — and stretch and explore,
reaching beyond their capacities
to explore without a preconceived
plan, and to learn from mistakes
and accidents. These are thinking
skills rarely addressed elsewhere in
the curriculum.
“Now, we don’t have enough
data to determine to what extent
these skills gained through the
visual arts might be transferable
to other disciplines or areas. But
all of these, I think we can agree,
are valuable to promote within
children in and of themselves.
“If schools are cutting time
and resources for arts, will they be
able to foster the kinds of thinking that, while not measurable in
high-stakes verbal or mathematical exams, are nonetheless valuable for leaders and innovators?”
Winner and Hetland outlined
their study’s findings in the Sept.
2 Boston Globe “Ideas” section.
She hopes that the Globe piece,
along with the publication of
Studio Thinking, has begun “to
change the conversation about
arts education.” (She also notes
the Globe piece brought her a host
of compliments, instead of condemnation, from peers and arts
advocates.)
Despite the harsh reaction the
2000 study generated, Winner
says she understands the context
in which these passions arose.
“In general, I think Americans
do not value the arts. We tend to
be very pragmatic and utilitarian,
certainly in terms of educational
priorities. So the majority of people say they just want kids to learn
‘the basics,’ which can be quantified and measured. Arts therefore
‘don’t count’; and in fact they’re
not included in the GPAs that are
sent off to colleges.
“Given that, you can see how
those who do consider the arts to
be important, especially in education, are bound to be frustrated
at what they see as a lack of support.
“Our point is, the arts need to
be valued for their own intrinsic
reasons — not as an instrument
for better test scores,” says Winner. “So let’s figure out what the
arts really do teach.”
Bicknell, Phelan Among
BC Hall of Fame Inductees
Former head football coach Jack Bicknell and All-America wide receiver Gerard Phelan ’85 headlined a group of
eight inductees into the Boston College Varsity Club Hall
of Fame on Oct. 7.
Bicknell, who was head coach from 1981 through 1990,
coached the Eagles to 59 victories in his 10-year career, including the 1985 Cotton Bowl and 1986 Hall of Fame Bowl
championships.
Phelan, one of BC’s all-time leading pass-catchers, gained
lifetime fame as the player who caught Doug Flutie’s lastsecond “Hail Mary” pass to beat Miami in 1984.
Also inducted during the Hall of Fame luncheon ceremony held at the Sheraton-Needham Hotel were Anne Marie
Ambros ’99 (field hockey); Howard Eisley ’94 (basketball);
Stephen Griffin ’87 (tennis); Sean McGowan ’99 (baseball);
Ann Porell ’85 (soccer); and Shannon Smith ’00 (track and
field).
In addition to the Hall of Fame honorees, former Boston
College High School football coach Jim Cotter, a 1959 BC
graduate, was presented with the Rev. William J. Donlan
Special Achievement Award in recognition of his nearly 50
years of accomplishments as a teacher, coach, administrator
and counselor at the Jesuit secondary school.
—Reid Oslin
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
october 18, 2007
Postings
Naughton to speak at inaugural
“Dean’s Colloquium” today
Prof. Michael Naughton (Physics)
will present “New Technologies from
BC Science” today at 4 p.m. in Devlin
101. His talk is the first of the new
“Dean’s Colloquium” organized by
College of Arts and Sciences Dean
Patrick Maney, a monthly forum
at which some of Boston College’s
most distinguished faculty members will discuss their own cutting-edge
research in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Presentations are aimed at a general audience of non-specialists,
and are open to all members of the
BC community—faculty, staff, and
students. Poet Robert Cording to hold
“master class”
Robert Cording PhD’77, who has
published his poetry in books and a
variety of magazines and journals,
will hold an alumni master class on
Oct. 24, from 7:30-9:30 p.m. in Devlin
101.
Cording is the author of five books
of poems, including last year’s Common Life, and has published more
than 300 poems in magazines such
as The New Yorker, Georgia Review,
Paris Review, The Nation, Kenyon
Review and American Scholar,
among others. Twice a fellow in
poetry from the National Endowment
for the Arts, Cording holds the Barrett Chair of Creative Writing at the
College of the Holy Cross.
At the event, which is free, Cording will read from his work and be
interviewed by Prof. Suzanne Matson
(English), novelist and poet. For information, call ext.2-6343 or e-mail
soyerd@bc.edu.
Prendergast to speak on
Darfur conflict
The Boston College Center for Human Rights and International Justice
will sponsor a lecture, “Ending the
Crises in Darfur and Northern Uganda,” on Oct. 24 by John Prendergast,
at 7:30 p.m. in Robsham Theater.
Prendergast is a leading human
rights activist who has dedicated
his life to raising awareness about
the need to bring peace to the Sudan — and especially its troubled
western region, Darfur, where more
than 450,000 people are estimated
to have died since a war began four
years ago between rebels groups and
Sudanese troops.
For more information on the event,
see www.bc.edu/humanrights.
“Career Night in the Arts” Oct 30
The Boston College Arts Council
will present its annual “Career Night
in the Arts” event on Oct. 30 from
7-9 p.m. in the McMullen Museum
of Arts.
Alumni speakers who have fashioned careers in film, music, theater,
visual art, writing, graphic design
and other arts disciplines will be on
hand to share their experiences and
offer career advice.
For more information and the list
of this year’s speakers, see www.
bc.edu/offices/artscouncil/artscareers.html.
Navigating a Course Through Work and Life
Harrington co-authors a
guide to integrating job,
personal commitments
By Rosanne Pellegrini
Staff Writer
Integrating the commitments
of work with personal or family
needs — one of the most universal and challenging issues of
our time — is the focus of a new
book on managing contemporary
careers, co-authored by Center for
Work & Family Executive Director Brad Harrington.
Career Management & WorkLife Integration: Using Self-Assessment to Navigate Contemporary
Careers is a practical and comprehensive guide to integrating a successful career with a happy, wellbalanced life, according to Harrington and his co-author, Boston
University Professor Douglas T.
Hall. The two are considered leaders in their field and are known
for their efforts to integrate theory
and practice.
Grounded in research, Career
Management & Work-Life Integration includes an extensive set of
exercises and activities that can
provide guidance for personal career management over the lifespan.
The book integrates themes from
both the career management and
the work-life fields, in contrast to
many other works that treat these
two areas separately.
“Today it seems nearly all
working people struggle with balancing their work and personal
lives,” says Harrington. “It is a
nearly universal challenge that
transcends, age, gender, culture
and socio-economic status. Our
goal is to help individuals succeed,
both personally and professionally, in doing meaningful work
while living a meaningful life.
“The message of our book is
that — in these fast-changing
times where the old employment
contract no longer exists — educating students and employees
to effectively navigate their own
careers is crucial.” He adds that,
given “the dramatic changes in
organizations, the ways we work,
and the nature of contemporary
families, all of us need to develop the skills to balance our
professional and personal commitments.”
Because every sector — business, law, professional services,
healthcare, government and education — has seen “unprecedented change in its career contract,”
say Harrington and Hall in the
book’s preface, “the skills involved
in navigating careers and maintaining work-life balance are now
necessary for all individuals.”
Among its key features, the
book provides a rigorous self-assessment process that offers readers a wealth of information and
insights regarding their own career
priorities and potential strategies.
Career Management & WorkLife Integration also helps readers
gain a greater understanding of
theories and research on careers
and work-life and guides them to
develop a tailored, personalized
career strategy.
The book is being touted as an
important resource for individuals
developing a career plan that is
grounded in, and reflects, a clear
sense of one’s professional and
personal priorities. Its publishers
describe it as an ideal text for
advanced undergraduate or graduate courses or executive educa-
Student Athletes Host Fans
from Mass. Hospital School
A dozen physically challenged
children from the Massachusetts
Hospital School in Canton were
guests of Boston College at the recent BC-Bowling Green football
game, and the game day report
indicates that the Eagles scored a
victory well beyond the playing
field that day.
“They loved it to no end,” says
Dick Crisafulli, director of recreation and athletics at MHS who
accompanied the children on their
visit to campus, where they were
hosted for the day by members
of the Boston College women’s
lacrosse team.
“We have come to a number of
events at BC, and each time one of
the teams at BC – either men’s or
women’s – has come to meet us,”
Crisafulli says. The visiting children were invited to the Alumni
Association’s FanFest event where
they met the BC cheerleaders and
Eagle mascot “Baldwin,” had their
faces painted in maroon and gold,
enjoyed lunch and had prime seats
for the football game.
“The lacrosse team members
really spent some time with the
children,” Crisafulli notes. “It
wasn’t just a token. They really
got to know the children – talking
with them and playing with them.
They even danced with them. The
BC students just did a wonderful
job.”
The campus visits by the Massachusetts Hospital School, as well
as a variety of other community
outreach programs, are sponsored
by BC’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee. The MHS event
was coordinated by Ashley Jefferson, an intern working with the
Athletic Association and Richard
“Moe” Maloney, assistant to the
director of BC’s Neighborhood
Center.
“This was a wonderful, wonderful experience for the children,” says Maloney. “You should
have seen the smiles on their faces.
They had a ball. The BC kids are
unbelievable.
“The children will definitely
be coming to more events at BC,”
Maloney says. “It is a great partnership. I am very proud of it.”
—Reid Oslin
“Our goal is to help
individuals succeed,
both personally and
professionally, in
doing meaningful
work while living a
meaningful life.”
—Brad Harrington
tion programs in career planning,
work-life or leadership development, as well as a resource for
employers’ or universities’ career
planning offices.
Harrington is a faculty member
in the Carroll School of Management and serves on the advisory
board of the International Center
for Work & Family at IESE in
Barcelona, one of Europe’s top
business schools. In 2006, Harrington was named by a national
work-life publication as one of the
“10 Most Influential Men in the
Work-Life Field.”
Hall, who holds an endowed
chair at BU’s School of Management, is one of the country’s
leading authorities on career development. In 2001, he received
the Edward Cherrington Hughes
Lifetime Achievement Award from
the Academy of Management for
his body of work on careers.
The Center for Work & Family
is a national leader in helping organizations create effective workplaces that support and develop
healthy and productive employ-
ees. The center works with more
than 100 leading employers to
provide a bridge linking academic
research and employer practices in
the work-life area. These partnerships provide leadership to shape
corporate and public responses to
the demands of work, home and
community.
Red Bandanna
Run Saturday
The third annual Welles
Remy Crowther Red Bandanna 5K Road Race will take
place this Saturday, Oct. 20,
at 9 a.m. — check-in is at 8
a.m., 7:30 a.m. if registering
the day of the race. To register
in advance, or find out more
about the event — which celebrates the life of Crowther,
a 1999 grad and 9/11 hero
— see www.redbandannarun.
com or contact The Volunteer
and Service Learning Center at
ext.2-1317.
Annual Diversity Challenge
Focuses on Mental Health
The lack of effective mental health care in the United
States for adolescents — especially those of racially and
culturally diverse backgrounds — will be the focus of the
sixth annual Diversity Challenge conference to be held
Oct. 19-20.
Sponsored by the Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture at Boston College, the Diversity
Challenge each year spotlights a racial or cultural issue and
explores research, interventions and strategies related to
the subject.
This year’s conference will examine the plight of the
estimated 13.7 million children aged 10-19 who have a
diagnosable mental disorder, two-thirds of whom do not
receive any mental health care. While clinical researchers
have devoted increased attention to mental health needs
of children and adolescents, say the conference organizers,
racial and cultural factors in mental health diagnosis, treatment and service delivery have largely been overlooked.
The conference has invited researchers, practitioners,
educators, medical service providers, employee assistance
personnel, government agencies, spiritual healers, and providers of community services “to offer critical perspectives
and creative ideas concerning the role of race and culture
in the lives of children, adolescents and families,” organizers say.
For more information on the conference, see www.
bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/isprc/conference.htm.
—Office of Public Affairs
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
October 18, 2007
PEOPLE
Newsmakers
•Prof. Fr. Robert Imbelli (Theology) contributed to a collection of
essays in America magazine titled
“What Are Theologians Saying
about Christology?”
•Asst. Prof. Natalia Sarkasian (Sociology) was quoted by the Boston
Globe for a story on “speedsitting,” a new trend in screening
potential babysitters.
•Prof. James Morris (Theology)
was among scholars discussing
the Islamic mystic poet Jalaluddin Rumi at 800 on the National Public Radio program “On
Point.”
•Prof. Stephen Pope (Theology)
spoke with the Boston Globe regarding the Archdiocese of Boston’s RENEW program to encourage people to return to the
Church.
•Clinical Prof. Daniel Kanstroom
(Law), associate director of BC’s
Center for Human Rights and
International Justice, was quoted
by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about illegal immigration
and the workplace. He also was
featured on a news special broadcast by New York City radio station WBAI, “New Surge in War
Against Immigrants.”
Publications
•Prof. Ruth-Arlene Howe (Law)
co-edited a recent issue of the
American Bar Association Section
of Family Law’s Family Advocate
titled “Co-parenting During and
After a Divorce: A Handbook for
Parents.” •Assoc. Prof. Joseph Tecce (Psychology) was interviewed by
WHDH-TV Channel 7 News
about a study that indicated eldest siblings had the highest IQs.
•The Migration Policy Institute
published a policy brief by Asst.
Prof. Jonathan Laurence (Political Science), “Integrating Islam: a
new chapter in church-state relations.”
•Prof. Ruth-Arlene Howe (Law)
was honored at the annual New
England People of Color Conference at the Southern New England School of Law.
Time and a Half
Cohen
•Assoc. Prof. Jeffrey Cohen
(CSOM) published “The Association between Disclosure, Distress
and Failure” in Journal of Business
Ethics, and had his paper “Academic Research on Communications among External Auditors,
Audit Committees and Boards:
Implications and Recommendations for Practice” accepted for
publication in Current Issues in
Auditing.
Law School Launches a
New Pro Bono Initiative
Kanstroom Earns Service Honor
A new Law School initiative
aims to foster, and recognize, students’ participation in pro bono
activities. Through the Pro Bono
Program, students will be honored for law-related community
service work with — depending
on their degree of participation
— an award at graduation, a letter from the dean, an invitation
to a special reception, or through
other means of recognition.
The program was formally
launched at last month’s third
annual Pro Bono Day, which featured a discussion on the hows
and whys of pro bono work, with
panelists Kristy Nardone ’99, pro
bono coordinator at Ropes and
Gray, Prof. Paul Tremblay (Law),
Associate Director of Public Interest Programs Freda Fishman,
and students Jason Langberg and
Emma Winger. In addition, the event saw the
announcement of Clinical Prof.
•Adj. Assoc. Prof. Michael C.
Keith (Communication) published an invited essay on the long
neglect of radio studies by higher
education in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.
Honors/Appointments
•Asst. Prof. Jonathan Laurence
(Political Science) spoke with
Congressional Quarterly about Islam in France and was interviewed
by the Philadelphia Inquirer about
Muslims in Germany.
•Prof. Peter Skerry (Political Science) offered comments to the
Boston Globe “Globe West” about
a local meeting held between immigrants and town officials. He
also was quoted by the Globe’s
“Spiritual Life” column on Muslim schools and religious schools
in general.
•Assoc. Prof. Robert Kern (English) published “Ecocriticism
— What is it Good For?” in the
Hungarian journal Helikon, for
a special issue designed to introduce ecocriticism to Hungary and
Eastern Europe. The article was
originally published in Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and
Environment in 2000.
Daniel Kanstroom as this year’s
winner of the Faculty Pro Bono
Award, which honors a member
of the Law School faculty who
best exemplifies the Jesuit tradition of service to others and leads
students by example to participate
in law-related pro bono work.
Kanstroom, director of the
Law School’s International Human Rights Program and associate director of the Boston College
Center for Human Rights and
International Justice, is a widely
recognized expert on immigration
law. Among other activities, he
co-chairs a national immigration
committee of the American Bar
Association and helps to organize
spring break trips where students
work on immigration law cases.
Kanstroom will receive his
award at an Oct. 29 reception.
—Law School Marketing and
Communications Director Nathaniel Kenyon
•Prof. Charles Hoffman (Biology) presented a pair of talks to
the Drug Discovery Group and
the Biochemistry Department
at West Virginia University on
“Development of a Fission YeastBased High Throughput Screen
for Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors.”
•Assoc. Prof. John McDargh
(Theology) was the keynote
speaker at the Third Annual Irish
National Conference on Focusing
at All Hallows College, Dublin.
•Libby Professor of Law Sanford
Katz was invited to speak at the
University of Castilla-La Mancha
in Toledo, Spain, on pre-marital agreements and the economic
consequences of divorce.
•Assoc. Prof. Joan Blum (Law)
gave a presentation to the Southeastern Legal Writing Conference
on the subject of teaching statutory analysis.
•Graduate School of Social Work
Continuing Education Director
Vincent Lynch spoke at Johns
Hopkins Hospital’s Social Work
Grand Rounds on “The Contributions of Social Work in the
AIDS Epidemic: Present, Past
and Future Issues.” He also presented “HIV/AIDS Psychosocial
Update: Issues of Domestic and
International Concern” at La Salle
University’s 25th anniversary celebration of its social work degree
program.
•Prof. John Michalczyk (Fine
Arts) participated in a panel on
the subject of political film with
political filmmaker Costa-Gavras
at the University of Southern California. Michalczyk is the author
of a biography on Costa-Gavras.
•Neenan Professor of Economics James Anderson presented
“Gravity, Productivity and the
Pattern of Production and Trade”
at the NBER Summer Institute,
the Paris School of Economics
and the Groningen Conference
on the Gravity Model.
•Assoc. Prof. Bruce Morrill, SJ
(Theology), gave the plenary address “Human Healing as Reve-
Center for Retirement Research
Lands Additional $2.8m Grant
The Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College
has received $2.8 million in new funding — equal to last year’s
record amount — from the US Social Security Administration
(SSA) to support research and dissemination on retirement income issues.
Drucker Professor Alicia H. Munnell, the center’s director,
said the new award “underscores the Center’s continuing success
in conducting high-caliber research and broadly disseminating the
results.” She added that “the additional funding will allow us to
explore new areas of research and continue our success in advancing the national dialogue on retirement policy.”
The CRR is part of a consortium that includes parallel centers
at the University of Michigan and the National Bureau of Economic Research. Its goal is to promote research on retirement
issues, communicate findings with policy-makers and the public, help train new scholars and broaden access to valuable data
sources. Since its inception in 1998, the center has received $19.2
million from SSA.
LSOE’s Brinton Lykes Wins Social
Advocacy, Human Rights Award
Prof. M. Brinton Lykes
(LSOE), associate director of the
University’s Center for Human
Rights and International Justice,
was honored by the American Orthopsychiatric Association (AOA)
with the 2007 Marion Langer
Award for distinction in social
advocacy and the pursuit of human rights.
Lykes was presented with the
award this past weekend in New
Orleans at the AOA Symposia at
latory of Divine Glory” at the
annual conference of the Pappas
Patristics Institute.
the 59th Institute on Psychiatric
Services, APA’s leading Educational Conference on Public and
Community Psychiatry.
She was recognized for her
“innovative scholarship and humanitarian work in development
of a psychology of liberation.”
Lykes also presented a talk,
“Towards a Psychology of Liberation and Transformation: Scholarship, Activism, and Pedagogy.”
—Office of Public Affairs
Laurence
•Asst. Prof. Jonathan Laurence
(Political Science) spoke on Islam
in Europe at Center for German
and European Studies’ 10th anniversary event at Brandeis University.
•Adj. Asst. Prof. Nadia Smith
(History) recently launched her
new book, Dorothy Macardle: A
Life, at the Boston College Centre, Dublin.
Entries for “People” can be emailed to people.chronicle@bc.edu.
Items will be printed as space permits.
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.edu/offices/hr/
Custodial Supervisor, Facilities
Management
Custodial Supervisor, Residence
Halls, Facilities Management
Facilities Services, Temp Pool,
Facilities Management
Project Manager, Biology Department
Writer/Editor, Carroll School,
Center for Corporate Citizenship
Research Analyst, Institutional
Review Board
Vice President for Student Affairs, President’s Office
Administrative Assistant, Physics
Department
Cashier, BC Bookstore
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
october 18, 2007
LOOKING AHEAD
READINGS • LECTURES •
DISCUSSION
October 18
•“Dean’s Colloquium: New Technologies from BC Science,” with
Prof. Michael Naughton (Physics),
4 p.m., Devlin 101.
•“Iranian-Saudi Relations and
the Prospect for Peace in the Persian Gulf,” with Banafsheh Keynoush, 4:30 p.m., Devlin 008. See
www.bc.edu/schools/cas/meis/.
Call ext.2-4170, e-mail baileyk@
bc.edu.
•Talk by former Nicaragua Minister of Education Fernando Cardenal, SJ, 6 p.m., Murray Room,
Yawkey Center. Call ext.2-3480,
e-mail odsd@bc.edu.
•“Faith, Reason and Culture in
Christianity and Islam,” with David Burrell, CSC, University of
Notre Dame, 7 p.m., McGuinn
121. Call ext.2-8095, e-mail
ghosn@bc.edu.
October 19
•“The Charms and Limits of Secularization: A Reflection on the Religious Situation of the West,” with
Pierre Manent, Centre de Recherches Politiques Raymond Aron, St.
John’s Hall, St. John’s Seminary,
adjacent to Brighton Campus. Call
ext.2-4144, e-mail geesh@bc.edu.
•Geosciences Research Seminar Series: “Dome surges and explosions:
observing volcanic earthquakes at
Santiaguito (Guatemala) with seismometers, microphones, and a video camera,” with Jeffrey Johnson,
University of New Hampshire, 4-5
p.m., Devlin 307. Call ext.2-0839,
e-mail oah.snyder@bc.edu.
October 22
•“Ecumenism in Ulster,” with
Daithí Ó Corráin, Trinity College
Dublin, 5 p.m., Thompson Room,
Burns Library. Call ext.2-4847, email irish@bc.edu.
•Panel discussion: “Handing on
an Inclusive and Just Faith: Parents Reflect,” with Assoc. Prof.
Jane Regan (Theology), Employee
Development Director Bernard
O’Kane, Urban Catholic Teacher
Corps Director Karen Kennedy
and Campus Minister Daniel Leahy. Registration required, see www.
bc.edu/church21/programs/seriesonwomen.html, call ext.2-0470,
e-mail church21@bc.edu.
•“Lectura Dantis: Purgatorio
XXIII,” with Fiora Bassanese, University of Massachusetts-Boston,
7:30 p.m., Devlin 101. See www.
bc.edu/schools/cas/honors/bcdante.html.
October 23
•Chamber Lecture Series: Raymond Offenheiser, president,
Oxfam America, 7 p.m., Murray
Room, Yawkey Athletic Center.
See www.bc.edu/schools/csom/
leadership/programs/chambers.
html.
•Lowell Lectures Humanities Series: Ralph James Savarese reads
from Reasonable People, 7:30 p.m.,
Gasson 100. Call ext.2-3705, email paul.doherty.1@bc.edu.
October 25
•“The Terror Dream: Fear and
Fantasy in Post-9/11 America,”
with author Susan Faludi, 7 p.m.,
McGuinn 121.
MUSIC • ART • PERFORMANCE
October 18
•“Music in the Afternoon: Cantos
de Espana,” Clara Sandler, soprano,
and Lyubov Shlain, piano, perform
the works by Turina, Albeniz and
de Falla., 4:15 p.m., Gasson 100.
•Film: “Into Great Silence,” 7 p.m.,
Robsham Theater. Call ext.2-4576,
e-mailcarlisll@bc.edu.
•“Music at St. Mary’s: Music of
J.S. Bach,” performed by Dana
Maiben, violin, and Arthur Haas,
harpsichord, 8 p.m., St. Mary’s
Chapel.
October 19
•“The Russians Are Coming,” Uni-
MAKING A BIG PRODUCTION
Laughing With Eagles
versity Wind Ensemble performs
works of Shostakovich, Prokofiev
and other Russian composers, 8
p.m., Gasson 100. Call ext.2-3018,
e-mail bands@bc.edu.
October 20
•“BC bOp! From the Cabaret
Room,” 8 p.m., Cabaret Room,
Vanderslice Hall.
October 30
•“Career Night in the Arts,” featuring alumni speakers from the arts
field, 7-9 p.m., McMullen Museum of Art. See www.bc.edu/offices/artscouncil/artscareers.html.
ATHLETICS
October 18
•Women’s soccer: BC vs. North
Carolina, 7 p.m., Newton Campus
Soccer Field.
October 19
•Men’s hockey: BC vs. North Dakota, 8 p.m., Conte Forum.
October 21
•Women’s soccer: BC vs. North
Carolina State, noon, Newton
Campus Soccer Field.
ONGOING EXHIBITIONS
•“Faces from Romanian Monastic Life,” exhibition of works by
National Geographic photographer
Dragos Lumpan, Gargan Hall,
Bapst Library, through Oct. 20.
E-mail bregman@bc.edu.
•“Somewhere A Voice is Calling:
American Irish Musical Interpreters, 1850 - 1975,” O’Neill Library
Lobby, through Oct. 26. E-mail
sweeneec@bc.edu.
•“Pollock Matters,” McMullen
Museum of Art, through Dec. 9.
Call ext.2-8100, e-mail artmusm@
bc.edu or see www.bc.edu/artmuseum.
For more on BC campus events,
see events.bc.edu or check BCInfo
[www.bc.edu/bcinfo] for updates.
BC SCENES
Lee Pellegrini
Boston College alumni have done very well in such fields as business,
politics, sports and academia — and, as it turns out, comedy.
BC grads Paul D’Angelo ’78, Brian Kiley ’83 and Gary Gulman ’93,
all of whom have cultivated successful careers in the comedy and entertainment world, will bring their shticks to Robsham Theater on Oct. 23 at 9
p.m. The event, sponsored by the Undergraduate Government of Boston
College, is free.
D’Angelo, the stage name for Paul Murphy, is a former assistant district
attorney and criminal defense trial lawyer
who found his comedic activities overtaking his legal career. He began hosting
his own weekly show at Boston’s two
premier comedy clubs, Nick’s Comedy
Stop and the Comedy Connection. After
being named “Boston’s Best Comedian”
by Boston magazine in 1994 and 1995,
D’Angelo started attracting wider attention, appearing at international comedy
festivals and competitions.
In addition to stand-up comedy,
D’Angelo wrote a one-man show, “La
Miserables: A Comic’s Life On Trial,”
that became the basis for a seminar-type Gary Gulman ’93
presentation on decision-making which he marketed to corporations, businesses, colleges and special event planners. D’Angelo is the author of six fulllength books about his experiences in Los Angeles, and has been involved
in several television projects.
A staff writer for “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” since its inception in
1994, Kiley won the 2007 Emmy Award for Writing in a Comedy/Variety
Series, one of seven Emmys for which he has been nominated. He also is a
six-time winner of the Writers Guild Award for Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series.
In addition to “Late Night,” Kiley has appeared on “The Tonight
Show with Jay Leno,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “Dr. Katz,
Professional Therapist,” “The CBS Morning Show,” “Spotlight Cafe,”
“Caroline’s Comedy Hour,” “Comedy On The Road” and “An Evening
at the Improv.”
Peabody, Mass., native Gulman, a three-sport varsity high school athlete
and National Honor Society member, earned a football scholarship to BC,
where he was a Dean’s List student in the Carroll School of Management.
While working as an accountant, he began honing his stage act at comedy
clubs and other venues (“rock clubs, used-book stores, bars, dance clubs and
anywhere else”) around New England.
In 1999, Gulman was selected to appear at the prestigious Montreal
International Comedy Festival, attended by hundreds of comedy industry
elites. Within six months of his performances at this showcase, he performed on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “The Late Show with
David Letterman,” and secured a deal to write and star in a biographical
situation comedy for Twentieth Century Fox.
Gulman’s appearance on the popular NBC-TV show “Last Comic
Standing” in 2004 led to opportunities for projects with CBS, Showtime
and Fox TV. He has recorded a CD, “Conversations with Inanimate Objects,” and a DVD, “Boyish Man.”
“It is always refreshing to hear success stories,” says Julian Kiani ’10,
who heads up UGBC’s Comedy and Concert Series. “It is very easy to
get caught up in the fast-paced, career-oriented college experience while at
BC. We often hear about an alumnus who goes on to head a Fortune 500
company or win an election, but we rarely hear about the other side of the
career spectrum. “Some people have made a career out of pursuing their passions and
talents. More specifically, some people live to make others laugh, and this
is just as respectable as any other glamorized profession. That is not to say
that politicians and businessmen are not talented in their own right, but
entertainment success stories often go unmentioned for some reason. This
comedy showcases the success one can find through determination and
passion.”
—Sean Smith
Oxfam America Head to Speak
at Chambers Series Oct. 23
Robsham Theater and the Theater Department presented “Metamorphoses,” based on David R. Slavitt’s translation of The
Metamorphoses of Ovid, Oct. 10-14. The production was directed by Adj. Assoc. Prof. Luke Jorgensen (Theater). In the photo
are Kimani Gordon ‘09 as Eros and Lindsey Simcik ‘10 as Psyche.
Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, will discuss
his career in the non-profit sector on Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. in the Murray
Conference of the Yawkey Athletic Center, as part of the Chambers
Lecture Series.
Offenheiser is a recognized leader on issues such as poverty alleviation, human rights, foreign assistance, and international development.
The Chambers Lecture Series, sponsored by the Winston Center
for Leadership and Ethics, brings high-profile speakers to campus for
public programs and student-focused activities that offer perspectives
and guidance designed to shape ethical leaders of the future.
For more information, see www.bc.edu/schools/csom/leadership/
programs/chambers.html.