The Boston College
Chronicle
october 19, 2006-vol. 15 no. 4
CSON Fills Dean Positions
with Tabloski and Read
By Kathleen Sullivan
Staff Writer
HOMECOMING HOOPLA—A sold-out crowd of some 1,200 students attended last Saturday’s Homecoming Dance,
held adjacent to The Mods on Lower Campus. This was the second year the dance was held on campus, and
organizers said they hoped to build the event into a long-standing tradition. (Photo by Kris Brewer)
AT A GLANCE
Finding Her Niche at BC
Helped by BC as a kid,
senior Adrienne Andry
now is giving back
By Greg Frost
Staff Writer
Eagle walk-on gets a kick
out of big chance, p. 3
Heights of Excellence:
Alan Wolfe, p. 5
Alumni Awards, p. 6
As far as inspirational stories
go, they don’t get much richer
than Boston College senior Adrienne Andry’s.
Raised in the Commonwealth
Housing Development (CHD),
a low-income Brighton public
housing complex less than two
miles from Chestnut Hill, Andry
started receiving tutoring by BC
student volunteers at a young
age.
Determined to defy the odds
and make something of herself,
she studied hard at Boston Latin
and was accepted to BC. And
almost as soon as she got here,
she turned around and started
giving back.
Weeks after she enrolled as an
undergraduate, Andry signed on
to 4Boston, the campus group
that places student volunteers in
programs across the city. Just like
the stream of BC students who
tutored her, Andry has spent the
last three years shuttling back
and forth between campus and
her former home to help kids just
like her.
Now in her final year, the
chemistry major doesn’t want to
leave the Heights.
“I didn’t really find my niche
in life until I came here,” she says
of BC. “This has been an ideal
atmosphere for me. People here
think more like I do about service
and serving others.”
Andry says she is torn between
pursuing a career in the sciences
or some form of service after
graduation, although the scales apContinued on page 4
COMING UP@BC
TODAY: “The Jesuit Tradition
and the Core Curriculum,”
7 p.m., McGuinn 121
TODAY: “Antigone,” 7 p.m.,
Robsham Theater
FRIDAY: Voices of Imani
fall concert, 7 p.m., Trinity
Chapel, Newton Campus
See page 8 for more, or go
to events.bc.edu
Adrienne Andry ‘07, speaking to Charlestown High senior Epiphany Milton. BC,
she says, “has been an ideal atmosphere for me.” (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
Connell School of Nursing faculty members Catherine Read and
Patricia Tabloski have been appointed to fill key leadership positions in the school’s academic
programs, CSON announced recently.
Read, an associate professor in
the Adult Health Department, will
serve as associate dean for undergraduate programs, while Tabloski
— an associate professor and former chair in the Adult Health Department — is associate dean of
CSON graduate studies.
Read, who joined Boston College in 2001 as an assistant professor, is a researcher in the field of
health promotion and psychological adaptation in persons with, or
at risk for, genetic disease, and last
year co-chaired a National Institute
on Aging-sponsored conference on
aging and genetic technology.
A CSON faculty member since
1998, Tabloski has focused her
nursing care and research in the areas of hospice and long-term care,
care of the elderly, and sleep improvement in those with Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, Tabloski
is director of a newly established
graduate program in palliative care
at the Connell School [see story on
page 3].
CSON Dean Barbara Hazard
hailed the appointments as a boon
to the school’s academic, profes-
sional and outreach missions.
“Cathy brings extraordinary
knowledge of the core curriculum,
as well as the School of Nursing
curriculum to the job. She has an
amazing ability to relate to students, parents, faculty, and staff,”
said Hazard. “She hears them and
finds creative solutions to their issues. Cathy is playing a major role
with our partners in clinical settings
to devise new models for the education of nurses.
“Pat is recognized nationally for
her expertise in the care of the elderly, and her research has resulted in new strategies for improving
the care of aged clients.
“Pat has been a leader in advancing our graduate programs.
“Cathy brings extraordinary
knowledge of the core curriculum, as well as the School
of Nursing curriculum to
the job...Pat is recognized
nationally for her expertise
in the care of the elderly, and
her research has resulted in
new strategies for improving
the care of aged clients.”
—CSON Dean Barbara Hazard
Continued on page 4
George Brown
Named to
Drinan Chair
Long-time Law School faculty
member George Brown, an expert
in the field of federal-state relations and government ethics who
has taught at the school for more
than three decades, is the inaugural
holder of the school’s new Robert F.
Drinan, SJ, Endowed Chair, Law
School Dean John H. Garvey has
announced.
Established through the efforts of
the BC Law class of 1958, the new
chair honors one of the most influential and beloved figures at BC
Law, former dean and congressman
Rev. Robert F. Drinan, SJ.
“George Brown is a natural
choice for this important position,”
said Garvey. “He has served the Law
School with warmth and energy for
35 years, and is a world-renowned
ethics scholar. We are fortunate to
have him.”
Brown said he was honored to be
named as the inaugural holder of the
Fr. Drinan Chair. “Fr. Drinan’s ex-
George Brown
emplary career spans so many fields
— public service, scholarship and
academic leadership, for example
— that it makes holding the chair
named for him a special privilege
and challenge.”
Brown, who received his AB and
JD degrees from Harvard University, has served as legislative assistant
to the Governor of Massachusetts
and as assistant attorney general of
Massachusetts. In 1994, Governor
William Weld appointed him chair
of the Massachusetts State Ethics
Commission.
Continued on page 4
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
october 19, 2006
Robsham Theater’s fall
season began last Friday with a
staging of “An Experiment with
an Air Pump,” featuring Grace
Jacobson ’10 and Matt Cullinan
’07. The Shelagh Stephenson
play also was the inspiration
for, and climactic event in, a
series of programs held earlier
this month to examine bioethical and other scientific issues.
(Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
AROUND
AROUND
CAMPUS
Celebrating Women at BC
A Nov. 1 event sponsored by the
Council for Women of Boston College
will celebrate the rich history and myriad
contributions of women to the past, present and future of the University.
Highlighting the event, which begins
at 4 p.m. in the Yawkey Athletics Center’s
Murray Room, will be the first campuswide screening of a newly produced film,
“Making Our Place: A History of Women
at Boston College,” a joint project of
the Office of Marketing Communications
and the Council for Women.
“Though the Council for Women is
primarily focused on alumnae, this event
offers a wonderful opportunity for us to
reach out to the other women of Boston
College,” said council member and Vice
President Mary Lou DeLong, NC’71,
who is co-chairing the event with University Trustee Mary J. Steele Guilfoile ’76,
chair of the council’s history project.
“I’m delighted that we have this chance
to have members of the community come
together to celebrate not only the women
of BC’s past, but also those who contribute so much to the University today,” said
DeLong.
The event, open to all faculty and staff,
will include a panel discussion about the
film and the evolving roles of women at
the BC, featuring brief remarks by De-
Long, Associate Academic Vice President
for Faculties Pat DeLeeuw and University
Trustee Cynthia Egan ’78, who co-chairs
the Council for Women with Trustee
Kathleen McGillycuddy NC ’71. A Q&A
and reception will follow.
“Making Our Place” was produced to
commemorate a special BC milestone: On
Commencement Day 2006, women graduates represented more than 50 percent of
the University’s total alumni population
of 146,500. Women also continue to represent more than 50 percent of full-time
undergraduate students.
The film includes historical milestones
such as the 1915 founding of the women’s Philomatheia Club that raised critical
funds for BC, the 230 archdiocesan nuns
who in the summer of 1924 became the
first to take classes on the Chestnut Hill
campus and the 200 women who arrived
in 1970 as the first fully recognized female
undergraduates in the College of Arts and
Sciences.
Also featured are trailblazers such as
Mary Catherine Mellyn, the first woman
to receive a BC degree (an honorary one,
in 1925), and Alice Bourneuf, BC’s first
female tenured full professor.
For more information, or to register for
the event, call Nicole Huard at ext.2-9175
or visit omc.bc.edu/cwbc-celebration/.
—Office of Public Affairs
Lens on real life
Assoc. Prof. Ernesto Livon-Grosman
(Romance Languages and Literatures), an
author and expert in Latin American poetics and travel literature, can now add a
new title to his resume: documentarian.
Livon-Grosman will premiere his
film, “Cartoneros,” at the Boston Latino
International Film Festival this Saturday. “Cartoneros” chronicles the plight
of thousands of unemployed workers
who come daily into Livon-Grosman’s
The performance of cadets such as (L-R) Charles Riley ‘08, Drew Firmender ‘10, Christopher Rosser ‘07, Master Sergeant
Ted Carlin and Cameron Hosmer ‘07 — shown after winning the Marine Corps 10K Honor Run for the third consecutive
year — has made the BC Army ROTC program one of the best in the country.
Cadet pride
It’s been a pretty good fall for BC as far as
rankings go, both academically and athletically
— from the University’s placement among the US
News & World Report top 35 to the men’s hockey
team No. 1 preseason spot — and now there’s
another achievement to report: Members of the
University’s senior Army ROTC class have been
ranked individually among the top 25 percent in
the nation.
The National Order of Merit ranks ROTC
seniors from one to 3806 according to grade point
average, physical fitness and overall leadership
performance, including results from a summer
training program. Last year, all the BC cadets
ranked in the top 33 percent, which had been their
best performance to date.
BC Army ROTC advisor Captain Brett Tashiro
notes that the average BC cadet ranking was 466
out of 3806, compared to 1003 of 3806 for MIT
and Harvard cadets and 1835 of 3806 for Boston
University cadets.
Adding to their achievements, the BC cadets won
the recent Marine Corps 10K Honor Run in Boston
for the third consecutive year.
“I believe these results speak to the quality of our
cadets and the balance we have achieved between
academics, physical and leadership training,” said
Tashiro.
—SS
native Buenos Aires to sort and classify
the garbage that neighbors leave behind
every evening on their doorsteps. The
hour-long film unveils the complexity of
informal recycling and its social, political
and cultural implications.
The documentary has an accompanying Web site, www.cartoneros.com.
For information on the Boston Latino
International Film Festival, see www.bliff.
org/index.html.
—SS
The Boston College
A proud history
One of the most important resources for the African American
Catholic community came to Boston College last week in the form
of the Black Catholic Theological
Symposium, which took place Oct.
12-15 on Newton Campus.
This year’s symposium — organized by Assoc. Prof. M. Shawn
Copeland (Theology) — featured
a keynote talk, “Katrina, King and
the Challenge of Unconscious Racism,” by Rev. Bryan Massingale,
an associate professor at Marquette
University, as well as panel discussions on trends in Catholic theology
and tenure and black faculty.
There were few academically credentialed African American Catholic scholars and liturgists when the
symposium began in 1978, Copeland notes. Throughout the years,
the symposium has mentored many
significant black Catholic scholars in
theology, liturgy, ethics, canon law,
church history and biblical studies,
while encouraging the teaching and
discussion of black Catholic religious and cultural experiences and
thought in colleges, universities and
seminaries.
“The symposium provides necessary critical space for grappling with
the theoretic, practical, moral, and
pastoral needs of the black Catholic
community,” said Copeland. “It’s
an honor to have it take place here
at BC.”
—SS
Chronicle
Director of Public Affairs
Jack Dunn
Deputy Director of
Public AFFAIRS
Patricia Delaney
Editor
Sean Smith
Contributing Staff
Greg Frost
Stephen Gawlik
Reid Oslin
Rosanne Pellegrini
Lauren Piekarski
Kathleen Sullivan
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
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at the Office of Public Affairs, 14
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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
october 19, 2006
EXTRA CREDIT
His Walk-on a Walk on the Wild Side
Replacement kicker
finds himself in the
big-time spotlight
“I got a lot of
messages from
Virginia Tech kids
telling me that I
was going to miss
every kick and
their big guys were
going to kill me.”
By Reid Oslin
Staff Writer
Like many Boston College students, Carroll School of Management sophomore Steve Aponavicius occasionally checks out the
“Facebook” page on his computer,
a favorite cyberspace port for undergraduates to exchange greetings and
information.
Last week, he found his page
swamped with messages from Virginia Tech rooters as the young
place-kicker from Easton, Pa., prepared to play against the Hokies
on Thursday night in the first organized football game of his life.
“I got a lot of messages from Virginia Tech kids telling me that I was
going to miss every kick and their
big guys were going to kill me,”
laughed Aponavicius, who completed a perfect night by kicking two
field goals and a pair of extra points
in BC’s stunning 22-3 victory over
the Techsters.
Aponavicius said he also had
a queue of 21 voicemail messages
on his campus telephone when he
awoke the morning after the nationally televised ESPN game that
marked his football debut. Most,
he assumes, are congratulatory calls
from BC fans thrilled with his performance in the game.
“It’s kind of scary how accessible
we all are,” he mused.
Aponavicius became the object
of widespread attention when he
was called upon by Eagles’ coach
Tom O’Brien to handle placekicking chores after their starting kicker
was suspended for violating team
rules.
The new kicker – often called
“Sid Vicious” by coaches and teammates wishing to avoid wrestling
with his polysyllabic family name
– earned a spot on the roster as a
walk-on candidate who had never played football before (“I had
played lots of backyard football, but
—Steve Aponavicius
Photo courtesy of
Associated Press
Symposium to Examine
Role of US Judiciary
United States Court of Appeals
Justice Richard Posner, controversial Massachusetts Supreme Judicial
Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall and former New York Times
columnist Anthony Lewis will join
other prominent jurists, legal scholars and journalists in Robsham
Theater this Saturday, Oct. 21 for
a public symposium on the United
States judiciary, dubbed “the least
dangerous” branch by Alexander
Hamilton.
“The Least Dangerous Branch?
Liberty, Justice and the United
States Supreme Court,” presented
by the Massachusetts Foundation
for the Humanities, will convene
some of the nation’s most prominent legal thinkers and writers for
provocative conversation on timely
topics such as judging the judges
and the Supreme Court, jurisprudence and presidential powers.
Representing Boston College on
the panel will be Asst. Prof. Mary-
Rose Papandrea (Law), a researcher
on civil procedure, constitutional
law, defamation and privacy law,
and national security and civil liberties.
Other panelists will be: former
US Assistant Attorney General Jack
Landman Goldsmith; Slate magazine Senior Editor Dahlia Lithwick;
and David Greenberg, an assistant
professor of journalism and media
studies at Rutgers University and
author of Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image.
Also, Yale Law School Southmayd Professor of Law and Political
Science Akhil Reed Amar, an expert
in constitutional law; and Marci
Hamilton, who holds the Verkuil
Chair in Public Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and
specializes in church/state relations,
federalism and representation.
For more information, see www.
bc.edu/supremecourt/.
—Office of Public Affairs
BC to Host World Education Summit
never with pads or anything like
that”). He was a soccer and baseball
standout at his hometown Easton
High School.
Enrolled as a finance and marketing dual major in the Carroll
School, Aponavicius spent some of
his spare time as a freshman practicing placekicking by himself in
Alumni Stadium. He was spotted
by an assistant coach one day and
was added to the varsity roster in
spite of his lack of previous football
experience.
His on-field debut came on one
of college football’s biggest stages
– a nationally televised game against
Virginia Tech, a team renowned for
their kick-blocking skills.
The Eagles deferred the ball after
winning the pre-game coin toss,
and Aponavicius found himself preparing to kick off for the game’s
opening play. “The kickoff actually
helped me settle my nerves a little,”
he admits.
He showed no signs of nervousness in his ensuing placements, either, hitting the pair of extra points
and field goals from 36 and 20
yards out.
“On the first extra point I was
just trying not to think about anything,” he says. “I just wanted to
keep my head down and follow
through.
“I tried to forget about the camera, the crowd, everything. It was
just Jack (Geiser) snapping the ball
and Chris (Crane) holding.”
Aponavicius says he was not
even fazed by having his parents
in the stands to watch him play.
“They weren’t planning on coming.
Thursday night is not a great time
to make that five-hour drive from
Easton. But as soon as they heard I
was playing, they wanted to come.”
His father Ben, a retired chemist,
and mother Jan, a nursery school
teacher, received lots of ESPN
screen time as they joyfully watched
their son add eight points to the
Eagles’ winning total.
“It could have been a disaster if I
had let all of the outside factors get
to me,” Aponavicius said. “But one
thing a kicker has to be able to do is
to block things out.”
CSON Launches Palliative Care Program
Funded by a three-year, $728,000
grant from the US Department of
Health and Human Services, the
Connell School of Nursing has established a new palliative care nursing specialty in its master of science
degree program.
Palliative care nursing provides
care for patients with serious and lifethreatening illnesses or injuries. The
program, which is to be directed by
CSON Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Patricia Tabloski — a
nationally recognized expert on care
of the elderly and one of the pioneers
of hospice care — is the first of its
kind to be offered through a New
England college or university. The
first course in the program will be
offered next summer.
While there are many benefits
to hospice care, says Tabloski, it is
usually limited to patients with less
than six months of life expectancy
who forgo active treatment. Statistics
show that more than one third of
hospice patients die within a week
of enrolling. The question, says Tabloski, is “how can we pick up these
patients sooner?”
Palliative care offers treatment for
seriously or chronically ill patients to
relieve their suffering, control symptoms and keep them functioning
at the highest level possible, Tabloski says. Such care is guided by
the patient’s needs and involves the
patient’s family.
“We’ll be teaching students the
art of nursing as well as the science,”
says Tabloski. “The best medicine is
not always the most medicine. Quality of life is also important.”
The Connell School palliative care
program will also take strides to address the shortfall of this type of care
among racial and ethnic minorities.
“There is mistrust among some in
this population,” explains Tabloski,
“and as a whole they are diagnosed
later, are sometimes treated less aggressively and have poorer outcomes.
Our program’s goal is to prepare
nurses to provide culturally sensitive
care to seriously ill minority patients
and their families.”
Graduates of the program will
be eligible to take the certification
exam offered by the National Board
of Certification of Hospice and Palliative Nurses. Nurses with palliative
care training can work in hospitals, home care agencies and nursing
homes.
—Kathleen Sullivan
A major conference co-sponsored
by Boston College next month will
bring together education leaders and
advocates from around the world to
discuss ways to improve and sustain
student achievement and school
quality.
Some 400 teachers, administrators, parents, students, researchers,
policymakers, union leaders and
other school affiliates are expected
to attend “Leadership for Sustainable Innovation: The Third International Summit and iNet Conference for Leadership in Education,”
which will take place Nov. 2-4 at
BC and the Omni Parker House
Hotel in Boston.
The event includes presentations
and interactive sessions provided
by leading international researchers
and practitioners. The kickoff keynote session on technology, education and the future will be held at
Robsham Theater at 4:30 p.m. on
Nov. 2, with the remaining sessions
at the Omni Parker House Hotel.
BC’s Lynch School of Education
is sponsoring the conference along
with the Boston Public Schools
and iNet, the international arm of
Specialist Schools and Academies
Trust, a support organization for
secondary education in England.
“This conference brings together
people from around the world, in
policy, practice and research, to discuss how to raise achievement and
improve as well as transform the
quality of students’ learning in our
schools,” said summit chair Brennan Professor of Education Andrew
Hargreaves, who will deliver a keynote address at the event.
Other BC representatives appearing at the event will include Lynch
School Dean Joseph O’Keefe, SJ,
professors Robert J. Starratt, Dennis
Shirley and Diana Pullin, Research
Prof. Irwin Blumer and Director of
Practicum Experiences and Teacher
Induction Carol Pelletier.
Session topics will include the
future of education technology,
diversity, how schools can be innovative in a climate of standardization, leading a strategically focused
school, improving student achievement, high-stakes accountability
in education, and school reform,
among others.
For more information, see the
conference Web site at www.ssatinet.net/Default.aspx?page=160.
—Public Affairs Staff
A&S Dean Search Under Way
The quest for a successor to College of Arts and Sciences Dean Joseph
Quinn formally began this week, as a search committee of administrators,
faculty and students held their first meeting on Tuesday.
Quinn, who has been A&S dean since 1999, announced this past spring
that he will step down after the 2006-07 academic year and return to the
Economics Department faculty.
The search committee is chaired by Vice President and Special Assistant
to the President William B. Neenan, SJ, and consists of: Vice President for
Mission and Ministry Joseph Appleyard, SJ; Graduate Student Association
President Eliza Bliss-Moreau; Undergraduate Government of Boston College President Santiago Bunce ’07; University Trustee Charles Clough ’64;
Prof. Robert Goizueta (Theology); Murray Monti Professor of Economics
Peter Ireland; Prof. Marilynn Johnson, History Department chair; Prof.
Suzanne Matson (English).
Also, Special Assistant to the President Robert Newton; Lynch School
of Education Dean Joseph O’Keefe, SJ; Prof. Lawrence Scott (Chemistry); Prof. Susan Shell, Political Science Department chair; and Prof.
Ellen Winner (Psychology).
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
Brown Is Appointed to
Chair Honoring Fr. Drinan
Continued from page 1
In the field of federal-state relations, Brown is best known for his
articles on the jurisdiction of federal
courts and on the federal grant-in-aid
system. He has also served as chair
of the Section on Federal Courts of
the Association of American Law
Schools.
Brown also is considered a leading authority on government ethics, having written several articles on
current judicial developments. His
proposal for the use of state law in
mail fraud prosecutions was adopted
by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in a major
anti-corruption decision. His current
research focuses on the role of the
courts in the war on terror.
His most recent publications
include “Counterrevolution? - National Criminal Law after Raich” in
the Ohio State Law Journal, “Carte
Blanche: Federal Prosecution of State
and Local Officials After Sabri” in
the Catholic University Law Review,
and “New Federalism’s Unanswered
Question: Who Should Prosecute
State and Local Officials for Political
Corruption?” in the Washington and
Lee Law Review.
Fr. Drinan was the youngest law
school dean in the country when
he took the job at age 35 in 1956.
Widely credited with transforming
the Law School into an elite national
institution, he recruited students tirelessly throughout the country using
merit-based scholarships. Under his
leadership the faculty grew from 12
to 23 members, and academic scores
for admitted students such as LSAT
and GPA increased every year.
Fr. Drinan served five terms in
the US House of Representatives,
and was the first congressman to call
for the impeachment of President
Richard Nixon during the Watergate
crisis. He left Congress in 1981, following Pope John Paul II’s declaration that Catholic priests should not
hold legislative positions.
Since then, Fr. Drinan has taught
at Georgetown University Law Center, including courses in legal ethics and international human rights.
He has also written eleven books,
including Can God and Caesar Coexist?: Balancing Religious Freedom and
International Law.
The idea for the Fr. Drinan Chair
originated from a discussion between
Doug MacMaster JD’58 and his
classmates on how they could support the school’s efforts to improve
fundraising and scholarship. Naming a chair after Fr. Drinan seemed
a most appropriate choice, said MacMaster.
“Fr. Drinan was very close to the
class of 1958,” he said. “He became
dean during our second year, and he
influenced me and so many others,
both personally and professionally.
And he was a major cornerstone, a
building block of the Law School.
What better person after which to
name an endowed professorship?”
Fellow 1958 alumnus Robert
Trevisani, who played a key role in
the fundraising efforts, said that Fr.
Drinan’s distinguished career “brings
honor to the Class of 1958 and
the chair that bears his name,” noting that BC Law made significant
progress in becoming a nationally
recognized leader in legal education
under Fr. Drinan’s leadership.
“Fr. Drinan was nothing less
than an energetic, dynamic leader,
giving constant support and encouragement to us as we suffered the rigors of a stiff curriculum,” Trevisani
said. “He made it a point to know
his students and it was unusual for
him not to attend our social functions. In fact, Fr. Drinan presided at
my wedding.” More information on Robert F.
Drinan, SJ, Professor George Brown
can be found at www.bc.edu/schools/
law/fac-staff/deans-faculty/browng/.
—Law School Communications
Manager Nathaniel Kenyon
Lee Pellegrini
october 19, 2006
Adrienne Andry tutors Shanee Williams, a senior at Brighton High School. “She’s in here all the time helping the kids,” says a long-time acquaintance. “We’re very proud of her.”
Ready to ‘Go a Long Way in Life’
Continued from page 1
pear to be tipping toward service.
“I’ve always wanted to be a social
worker,” she says, indicating she
may apply to the Graduate School
of Social Work.
“I love chemistry, but right now
I’m in love with service.”
Both at BC and at the housing development, people who know
Andry have nothing but praise for
her.
In the 34 years that Jean Small
has lived at CHD, she has seen her
share of lows and highs. Among the
lows was a long stretch in the 1970s
when the housing complex was one
of the most dangerous in Boston.
Among the highs, however, has
been watching Andry bloom.
As Small and other residents of
the housing project fill paper bags
with food supplies that members
of BC’s women’s lacrosse team will
distribute to needy families in the
neighborhood, Andry meets nearby
with a high school girl, offering
pointers on her college application
essay.
“This girl, she is a sweetheart.
She’s in here all the time helping
the kids. We’re very proud of her,”
Small says of Andry.
“She’s going to go a long way
in life,” she adds, crediting Andry’s
mother for pushing her daughter to
succeed.
Andry says her mom raised her
and her siblings on her own, going on welfare because she had two
sons with severe disabilities who
needed her constant and full attention. Andry’s older sister was the
first person in the family to attend
college.
From about the time she started
grade school, Andry took advantage of programs offered by the
Commonwealth Tenants Association (CTA). Chief among these was
the After School Tutoring Program
that matched her with BC student
volunteers.
Andry stuck with the program
as a teenager, even as her peers lost
interest — sometimes with highly
significant repercussions, she suggests: “A lot of my friends who are
girls have kids now.”
To CTA Executive Director
Alex Danesco ’97, who has known
Andry since she was in sixth grade,
Andry always seemed a shy, quiet
girl — until she gave a speech at
a Boys and Girls Club banquet
dinner midway through her high
school career.
“She got up and she said, ‘I’m
Adrienne Andry and I’m going to
be someone,’” Danesco says, recalling how the room suddenly fell
silent.
“She said, ‘I’m going to graduate
from Latin School, I’m going to get
into Boston College, I’m going to
go to Boston College.’ Afterwards,
all these adults – rich people who
were at the dinner – were coming
up and wanting to meet her.”
Danesco says Andry serves as a
vital role model for young people
growing up in CHD.
“She’s here all the time,” he says.
“We’ve had other kids from the
community go to BC, but none
had BC in their life as prominently
as she did, and none has given back
as much as she has.”
Andry is this year’s recipient of
the W. Seavey Joyce, S. J. Community Service Award. She is due
to accept the prize at a presentation
Nov. 9 in St. Mary’s Hall.
Tabloski, Read to Lead CSON Programs
Continued from page 1
Our new palliative care program is
a testament to Pat’s determination
and commitment to current societal
needs. This expands the focus on
end of life care, which has been of
interest to ethicists, social workers,
and others at BC.”
Read is a senior nurse scientist at
the Center for Nursing Excellence
at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a member of a research
team at Boston University School
of Medicine. She also serves on the
Burlington Board of Health.
A graduate of the University of
Illinois-Chicago, Read also holds
a master of science in physiology
from the University of Illinois-Urbana, a master of science in nursing
from Salem State College and a
doctorate from the University of
Massachusetts-Lowell. In 2002,
UMass-Lowell honored Read with
the Francis Cabot Lowell Young
Alumni Award for Health Professions.
“This is my 30th year as a nurse
and I have to say it is the most exciting time for the nursing profession,”
she said. “Job prospects are great for
nurses. I have fielded a lot of calls
from those interested in our undergrad program. We had 25 internal
transfers into CSON last year.”
Discussing this increased interest
in nursing, Read said, “When I sit
and talk with students they speak
about their desire to go to work every day and help people. Nursing is
such a personally rewarding career.
“There is no better place to teach
or study nursing than Boston College.”
Read said her goals include fostering partnerships with the Romance Languages Department to
bolster foreign language proficiency
among nursing students and attracting more men into nursing. On
another front, Read noted that in
January, eight CSON undergrads
will join two CSON master’s students and two faculty members for
a community health for-credit trip
to a camp in Nicaragua.
Tabloski is a fellow in the Gerontological Society of America and
a senior nurse scientist at the Center
for Nursing Excellence. She earned
a bachelor’s degree from Purdue
University, a master of science in
nursing from Seton Hall University
and a doctorate from the University
of Rochester.
Offering a brief overview of the
state of graduate studies at CSON,
Tabloski said, “Our most popular
program is the master’s reentry program, where non-nurses with bachelor’s degree complete two years of
full time study to earn a master’s
degree in advanced practice nursing.
The nurse anesthetist program has
been highly successful. Our recent
graduation class achieved 100 percent certification.
“It is a great time to be in nursing. I’ve worked a lot of places and
BC is the best.”
Patricia Tabloski, left, and Catherine Read. (Photo by Chad Minnich)
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
october 19, 2006
HEIGHTS
OF
EXCELLENCE
Faith in the System
Alan Wolfe tackles that volatile mix, religion and politics
“Heights of Excellence” profiles faculty
members who, through their exemplary teaching and research, contribute to the intellectual
and spiritual life of Boston College
political science majors, and they follow the news,
are well-informed, and quite intelligent. I think,
perhaps, high schools are generally not doing as
well in teaching history, so perhaps students are not
coming in with that solid a background.
By Sean Smith
“But there’s no problem at all about their enthuChronicle Editor
siasm, their participation and their desire to learn.”
Count senior Clare Murphy as among the enthuThe picture window looks out on a clear, cool
siastic. The Politics and Religion seminar, she says,
early autumn afternoon, but here in the seminar
“sets up the background and reasoning behind the
room at 24 Quincy Road the attention of a dozrole that religion plays in the ethical and moral decien Boston College undergraduates is firmly fixed
sions that American citizens make every day of their
on Prof. Alan Wolfe (Political Science).
lives. Look at some of the major issues we’ve seen
Wolfe, seated at the head of a lozenge-shaped
of late, from stem cell research to the Terry Schiavo
table festooned with several pale pastel-colored
controversy to the debate about America’s foreign
candles and a matching cloth, is making a point
policy — religion has become an increasingly influabout the shifting trends in American politics.
ential factor in American politics.”
Look at Evangelical Protestants, he says: Once
Teaching, of course, is only one aspect of Wolfe’s
a force in 19th-century American politics — as
life at BC. The center he directs — created in 1999
symbolized by their long-time champion, Wilwith an endowment from Geoffrey T. Boisi ’69 and
liam Jennings Bryan — by the late 1920s, they
his wife Rene (Isacco) Boisi ’69 — brings outstandwere on the fringes of the American political
ing scholars, writers, journalists, policy makers and
landscape, with no role in either major party.
other experts to campus to speak on just about every
But in just five decades, Wolfe continues, the
hot-button issue involving religion and politics:
Evangelicals would reappear and at century’s end
school choice, faith-based social initiatives, inteloccupy a central place in American politics.
ligent design and, most recently, the debate about
So, Wolfe asks, who is today’s equivalent of
religious phrases in the Pledge of Allegiance and
a 1920s Evangelical Protestant — politically
American currency. In 2002, only days after the first
marginalized, seemingly out of synch with curanniversary of 9/11, the center hosted a seminar,
rent social trends? “Probably a Massachusetts
“Religion in Contemporary America: Church, State
college professor,” he answers with a smile, as the
and Society,” for
students chuckle. “I mean, think
scholars from Musabout it: I live in the Northeast,
lim-majority counand nobody wants to live in the
tries, including PakiNortheast. I like living in cities,
stan, Jordan, Nigeria
and nobody likes living in cities.
and the Palestinian
I listen to classical music, and noAuthority in Israel’s
body likes classical music.”
West Bank.
It’s a pithy, trenchant bit of
Wolfe also has
analysis, but if you’re a Massachukept up his steady
setts college professor named Alan
regimen of writing
Wolfe things are actually pretty
throughout his BC
good. You’re the director of the
career, publishing
internationally recognized Boisi
not only critically acCenter for Religion and American
claimed books — the
Public Life, and you’re a widely
latest is Does Ameriread and quoted public intelleccan Democracy Still
tual whose new book has some
Work? — but a regurather provocative observations
lar slew of op-eds, reabout American democracy.
Wolfe leading a class. “He’s deeply committed to teaching,
Still, the proving ground for and he makes no effort to underplay his responsibility in that views and commentary in the New York
Wolfe is this seminar room at the regard,” says a colleague. (Photos by Lee Pellegrini)
Times, Boston Globe,
Boisi Center, where every Monday
Chronicle of Higher Education, Harper’s, Atlantic
he leads his Politics and Religion class. Call him
Monthly and The New Republic, among others.
a media star if you will, but for college professor
But Wolfe — who also directs the American PoWolfe the task at hand is to help these 12 unlitical Science Association Task Force on Religion
dergraduates to better understand the complex
and American Democracy — doesn’t seem to regard
interplay of religion and politics in America. It
his workload as particularly onerous or even signifimay not seem as alluring or high profile as pencant: “I’m a writer,” he says simply. “I write.”
ning an op-ed for The New York Times, but colWell, something a little more than that, says Atleagues and students alike say Wolfe approaches
lantic Monthly Editor Cullen Murphy.
the task with care, devotion and zeal.
“Most scholars don’t have a feel for how to write
“Alan’s deeply committed to teaching, and he
for an audience of ordinary, well-educated people,”
makes no effort to underplay his responsibility
explains Murphy. “Alan can do that while not letin that regard,” says Prof. Marc Landy (Polititing go of the special expertise that makes him a
cal Science). “He is terrific in all the aspects of
scholar. So he becomes one of those mediating
teaching, including those that are not especially
influences, the person in the room who can talk to
glamorous.
everyone else but also enjoys intellectual heft in his
“He’s not a slave driver, but he presses stuown right.”
dents to think things through, because he expects
For Wolfe, then, BC has been a perfect fit.
them to have opinions. He doesn’t let them off
“The kind of issues I’m concerned with resothe hook.”
nate with the Jesuit, Catholic tradition,” he says.
Wolfe, in his eighth year as a BC faculty
“Furthermore, a lot of programs in political science
member, has taught on the college level for the
don’t ask the big questions in the way we do here,
better part of three decades. He nods at the
with a focus on faith, philosophy and the human
much-reported characteristics ascribed to this
condition. I think it’s a case where my interests,
generation of college students — they don’t read
and the things I wanted to explore, dovetailed with
newspapers, they have limited attention, they
BC’s mission.”
lack a strong historical perspective — but doesn’t
Cullen Murphy agrees: “The subjects close to his
feel as if his job is tougher than in past years.
heart, concerning values in American life and their
“The students I see are, for the most part,
intersection with the great political issues roiling the
nation, straddle both the ‘real world’ and the life of the
mind — not a place where you find most scholars. People
who wonder what has happened to public intellectuals in
America simply don’t know Alan.”
Still, it would seem an unlikely scenario: Someone
from a non-observant Jewish background, who didn’t
take an interest in religion until well into his adulthood,
working at a university with an avowed devotion to its
Jesuit, Catholic heritage and mission — and he’s one of
America’s leading authorities on religion in public life.
Wolfe came of age in 1950s Philadelphia, an era in
which the city’s Big Five college basketball teams arguably were more interesting than its professional sports
franchises, and a locally produced TV show began
sweeping teens onto the dance floor across the country
— “American Bandstand.” (“I got to dance on the show
once,” recalls Wolfe, “but it was only once. They were
more plugged into the Catholic schools than the public
schools.”)
“The biggest thing about Philadelphia for me was that
it wasn’t New York City, and to be Jewish growing up in
a place other than New York just made me feel different,”
he says. “Philly wasn’t the same kind of city, but it was big
enough to, for example, have its own orchestra — with
Eugene Ormandy and Leopold Stokowski — which was
where I picked up a great love of classical music.
“My father was in the construction business, and in
those years Philly construction was dominated by Grace
Kelly’s father, John, so I learned a lot about ethnicity and
its role in civic life.”
His parents were both children of immigrants — his
mother’s family from Hungary, his father’s from Ukraine
— and, as Wolfe explains, of that next-generation which
tends to be less observant of their ancestral land’s customs
and traditions. So, although he was raised with a Jewish
cultural identity, Wolfe says, religion was not a part of
his upbringing.
Religion was not part of his adulthood, either, until the Jimmy Carter administration in the mid to late
1970s, when the aforementioned Evangelical Protestants
first began to reappear in American politics — emboldened, in part, by the conservative backlash against 1960s
liberalism, then galvanized by Roe vs. Wade. Fascinated
by the trend, Wolfe began making up for lost time and,
helped to a great extent by Lilly Foundation-sponsored
seminars, began learning all he could about religion and
its place within American society.
“I don’t think it took anyone with great intelligence to
see this would become an important thing,” says Wolfe,
“and it has.”
Years later, the Evangelicals are, to a great extent, still
fueling Wolfe’s interest, as reflected in Does American
Democracy Still Work? As Wolfe sees it, Evangelicals and
other Christian conservatives have been a major reason
why religion and morality have replaced political and
economic self-interest as guiding principles for AmeriContinued on page 8
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
october 19, 2006
Former Bush debate advisor
to speak next Tuesday
The Communication Department will
present a lecture, “An Inside Look at
Political Debates,” with Liberty University Director of Debate Brett O’Donnell
on Tuesday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m. in McGuinn 121.
O’Donnell, who is president of the political consulting firm O’Donnell and Associates, Ltd., advised President Bush
during the 2004 campaign debates.
This January, he will join the staff of
the presidential candidacy exploratory
committee for US Sen. John McCain
(R-Ariz.).
For further information, call ext.24280.
C21 Online course sign-up
The University’s C21 Online program
will begin offering two new courses
shortly: “Encountering Mark, Matthew
and Luke: The Synoptic Gospels,” beginning Oct. 30, and “The Creed: What
We Believe,” beginning Nov. 6.
C21 Online, in collaboration with
Boston College’s Institute of Religious
Education and Pastoral Ministry, offers
Catholic adults online courses for spiritual enrichment and faith formation.
For more information, see www.
bc.edu/sites/c21online.
Ex-Northeastern president to
give Monan Lecture
Northeastern University President
Emeritus Richard Freeland will present
the Eighth Annual Monan Lecture on
Higher Education, titled “Academia’s
Golden Age Reconsidered: Reflections
on the Spellings Commission,” on Nov.
2, at 4:30 p.m. in the Yawkey Athletic
Center’s Murray Function Room.
Freeland headed Northeastern for
10 years until his retirement earlier
this year, and is widely credited with
improving the university’s academic
reputation and overall profile.
The Monan Series is sponsored by the
J. Donald Monan, SJ, Chair in Higher
Education and the Lynch School of Education Program in Higher Education. For
further information, call ext.2-4236.
Career Night for the Arts Nov. 1
On Wednesday, Nov. 1, the Boston
College Arts Council will sponsor “Career Night For The Arts,” featuring BC
alumni from various arts disciplines,
including music, theater, visual art,
film, museum studies, writing and others who will be available to talk with
students interested in careers in the
arts. The event will take place from
7-9 p.m. in the McMullen Museum of
Art. Additional information, including
an alumni participant list, is at www.
bc.edu/artscareers.
Gasson Chair to sponsor
two lectures
Two upcoming lectures sponsored by
the Thomas I. Gasson, SJ, Chair will
take place early next month.
On Nov. 2, at 4:30 p.m. in Gasson
305, there will be a panel discussion,
“Recent Developments in Roman
Catholic Relations with Anglicans and
Methodists,” featuring lecturer Canon
Donald Bolen of the Pontifical Council
for Christian Unity.
The following Thursday, Nov. 9, at
4:30 p.m. in Higgins 300, Gasson Professor Keith Pecklers, SJ, will give the
2006 Gasson Lecture, “Catholic Liturgy
40 Years After Vatican II: Development
or Decline?” Fr. Pecklers is a professor
of liturgy at Pontifical Gregorian University and a professor of liturgical history
at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute.
For information, call ext.2-3882.
Outstanding Alumni to Be Honored Tonight
By Reid Oslin
Staff Writer
Curry College President Kenneth K. Quigley Jr. ’79, former
Parade Magazine publisher John
H. Griffin Jr. ’82 and Kathleen
Hickey Barrie, NC ’72, designer
of the popular new International
Spy Museum in Washington, DC,
are among the 10 Boston College
graduates who will be honored at
the Alumni Awards of Excellence
ceremony to be held in Robsham
Theater tonight, starting at 7 p.m.
In addition to eight awards
given to graduates in recognition
of their excellence in various professional and academic disciplines,
Robert C. Reardon ’63, MS ’66
will receive the Alumni Association’s highest honor, the William
V. McKenney Award, as the graduate who has made outstanding
contributions to service, industry
and the University.
Reardon has enjoyed successful
corporate careers in research and
development management and as
a principal of TKL Research, Inc.,
a privately held clinical research
firm focused on conducting clinical trials for safety and effectiveness
of pharmaceuticals. He also has
served as a member of BC’s Gasson Society for alumni giving and
Among those Boston College graduates receiving Alumni Awards of Excellence tonight are (L-R): Robert C. Reardon ’63, MS
’66, Kathleen Hickey Barrie NC ’72 and Kenneth Quigley Jr. ‘79.
president of the Alumni Chapter
of New Jersey, and been active in
numerous alumni volunteer assignments.
More than 20 years ago, Reardon was involved in the founding
of the Hoboken, NJ, Shelter for
the Homeless; he has served as
a continuing leader of the Community for Bread and Justice; and
was a key facilitator to the development of the Jesuit-run St. Aloysius
School in Harlem, where he has
served as advisory board chair for
the past 15 years.
Ten years ago, Reardon and
his wife Ann Marie established the
St. Aloysius Scholarship at Boston
College.
Receiving the association’s
Young Alumni Award of Excellence will be William J. Driscoll
’05, the founder of Persevere Disaster Relief, a volunteer organization providing assistance to victims
of Hurricane Katrina.
In addition to Quigley, who
will receive an Achievement Award
for his work in the field of education, Griffin (Commerce) and
Barrie (Art and Humanities), other
alumni honorees are:
-Rev. Edward J. Phillips, MM
’68, managing director of the Arch-
diocese of Nairobi Eastern Deanery
AIDS Relief Program (Health)
-Joan Lukey, JD ’74, partner in
the litigation department of WilmerHale (Law)
-Mark L. O’Connell, MSW
’68, president of the United Way
of Metropolitan Atlanta (Public
Service)
-Maryanne Patricia Confoy,
RSC, PhD ’81, professor at the
Jesuit Theological College (Religion)
-Walter J. Arabasz ’64, research
professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah (Science).
Retirement Center Report Cautions on 401(K) Plans
By Reid Oslin
Staff Writer
Holders of private 401(K) retirement savings plans need to
keep a sharp eye on their investments, suggests a recent report
published by Boston College’s
Center for Retirement Research
which indicates that 401(K)s have
underperformed traditional benefit plans by one percentage point
per year.
The new report, co-authored
by CRR Director and Drucker
Professor of Management Sciences Alicia Munnell along with Senior Research Associate Mauricio
Soto, Research Associate Jerilyn
Libby and student researcher John
Prinzivalli ’09, suggests a shift in
forecasted benefits that could have
a sizeable influence on long-range
retirement investments.
“A one percentage point difference is not significant in any given
year,” says Munnell. “But over a
40-year worklife it translates to 20
percent less at retirement.”
The report also indicates a
substantial growth in Individual
Retirement Accounts, another
investment avenue that requires
close attention to maximize holdings.
“What this report underscores
is that the world has moved away
from traditional pension plans,
and that other self-directed accounts, such as 401(K)s, are
where the action is,” says Andrew
Eschtruth, the center’s associate
director for external relations.
“Those accounts put the risk and
“A key lesson for 401(K) and
IRA participants is to pay attention to what is going on in your
portfolio. People should consider
lower-cost investment choices and
select a well-diversified portfolio,
so all of their eggs are not in one
basket.”
The CRR report is available
at www.bc.edu/centers/crr/ib_
52.shtml.
In addition, CRR has published a National Retirement Risk
Index indicating that nearly 45
percent of working-age households in America are “at risk” of
being unable to maintain their
pre-retirement standard of living
Lee Pellegrini
Postings
Alicia Munnell
responsibility on the individual to
achieve retirement security.
“With traditional pension
plans, you didn’t have to think
about anything. You just worked
at your company and collected a
monthly check at retirement.
“Now we are in a world where
it is up to the individual how well
their employer pension is going
to do. For example, investment
choices can have a significant impact on portfolio performance,”
he says.
The report suggests that returns from some 401(K) and IRA
accounts are reduced by management fees. “Fees for those individual investment accounts are
generally higher than fees for a
traditional employer plan,” notes
Eschtruth.
in retirement.
Munnell says that “unless
Americans change their ways,
many will struggle in retirement.
There is no silver bullet, the answer is saving more and working
longer.”
The National Retirement Risk
Index is based on data from the
Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of
Consumer Finances. It is a comprehensive measure of household
finances that includes Social Security, employer-sponsored pensions, non-pension financial assets
and housing.
The complete report is available
at: www.bc.edu/crr/nrri.shtml.
Lynch School Event Addresses
Education and Immigration
The Lynch School of Education will present its annual symposium on Oct. 26, with this year’s theme as “Education and Immigration: A Call to Conscience.”
Fairfield University Professor of Sociology and International
Studies Richard Ryscavage, SJ, who is director of the Center for
the Study of Faith and Public Life, will present the keynote address at 4:30 p.m. in the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons.
Responding to the talk will be Clinical Prof. Daniel Kanstroom
(Law), associate director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College — the symposium’s co-sponsor —and Iris Gomez, an attorney with the Massachusetts Law
Reform Institute and advocate for the rights of immigrant youth
to higher education.
In addition, the Lynch School Undergraduate Senate will
honor outstanding teachers nominated by the school’s senior class:
John Keppel, Stoughton High School, Fall River; Maria Lanahan,
Verona (NJ) High School; Lynne Meyer, Greenleaf Elementary
School, Apple Valley, Minn.; and Sue Nealon, Broadmeadow
School, Needham.
For more information, contact fultonm@bc.edu.
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
october 19, 2006
PEOPLE
Newsmakers
•Assoc. Prof. Kathleen Seiders
(CSOM) was interviewed by
CBS4-Boston News on new wireless shopping scanners.
Winner (Psychology) for a segment
on the ways in which child prodigies learn and solve problems.
•Prof. Emeritus John Dacey
(LSOE) was interviewed by the
Boston Globe about how to calm
children’s fears in light of reports of
school violence.
•Flatley Professor of Catholic Theology Rev. David Hollenbach, SJ,
was quoted by the Washington Post
in a story on religious-right voters’
guides.
•College of Arts and Sciences Dean
Joseph Quinn discussed changing
retirement patterns with Newsday.
•Prof. Michael Cassidy (Law) was
quoted by the Associated Press re
lawsuits resulting from the RI nightclub fire case.
Publications
• Assoc. Prof. Robert Kern
(English) published “Fabricating
Ecocentric Discourse in the American Poem (and Elsewhere)” in New
Literary History.
•An op-ed by Boisi Center for
Religion and American Public Life
Director Prof. Alan Wolfe (Political
Science) on voter responsibility was
published by the Los Angeles Times
and was praised by a subsequent
op-ed in Guam’s Pacific Daily News.
He also reviewed Michael Berube’s
book What’s Liberal About The Liberal Arts? for the New York Times.
Grants
• Adj. Assoc. Prof. Philip DiMattia (LSOE): $2,573,180, local
towns “FY ’07 Campus School
Operational Budget”; $107,759,
local towns, “FY ’07 DMR-Supported Employment Program”;
$45,597, MA Rehabilitation Commission, “FY ’07 MRC/Commu-
•Prof. Peter Gottschalk (Economics) was quoted by the Boston
Business Journal for a story on
rising wages in the medical device
industry.
•Law School Dean John Garvey
was quoted by the New York Times
regarding religious issues and the
US Supreme Court.
•Moakley Professor of American
Politics Kay Schlozman was interviewed by the Boston Globe for a
story on the future of the also-rans
in the Democratic gubernatorial
primary.
Honors/Appointments
• Adj. Assoc. Prof. Michael C.
Keith (Communication) will be
recognized in a session titled “Michael C. Keith and Trends in Radio
Studies” at the forthcoming annual
convention of the Broadcast Education Association.
nity Based Employment Supports.”
•Asst. Prof. Elizabeth Kensinger
(Psychology): $183,524, National
Science Foundation, “Emotion’s
Modulation of Attention and
Memory: Effects of Aging.”
•Prof. Marc Snapper (Chemistry): $130,000, National Science
Foundation, “The Development of
Powerful New Ruthenium-Catalyzed Tandem Processes.”
•Prof. Michael Naughton (Physics): $120,000, National Science
Foundation, “Quasi-1-D Molecular Organic Conductors: Experiement and Simulation.”
•Vanderslice Millennium Professor of Chemistry Amir Hoveyda
and Asst. Prof. Steven Bruner
(Chemistry): $10,000, Pfizer Inc.,
“Unrestricted Grant for Laboratory
Support.”
•Prof. Sharlene Hesse-Biber (Sociology) was a guest on the nationallysyndicated “Dr. Keith Ablow Show”
where she discussed the sociology of
polygamy.
HVAC Mechanic Desmond Dies
Fr. Guindon Dies, Was Physics
Chair, New England Provincial
Former Physics Department faculty member Rev. William Guindon,
SJ, an educator and leader of New England Jesuits in the late 1960s and
early 1970s, died Oct. 4. He was 88.
Fr. Guindon held a doctorate in theoretical nuclear physics and
served BC from 1953 to 1964 as a physics professor and department
chair before joining the faculty at Holy Cross College in 1964. In 1968, he was chosen as New England’s provincial superior by
the superior general in Rome. After a six-year term, he served as dean
and president of the Jesuit School of Theology in Chicago, chaplain of
Smith College in Northampton and special assistant to the provincial
superior.
Nota Bene
Work/Life Matters Magazine honored Boston College Center for
Work & Family Executive Director Brad Harrington as one of “the
most influential men in work/life” at its Annual Awards Gala Oct. 5 in
New York City.
The center, created in 1990, is recognized as a national leader in helping organizations create effective workplaces that support and develop
healthy and productive employees. Last month, the center launched a
new initiative, the Global Workforce Roundtable, in London.
Work/Life Matters seeks to provide top executives with current information on the latest news, trends and analysis on the benefits of
offering employees comprehensive work life resources and benefits.
The publication reaches some 5,000 CEOs, CFOs, COOs and human
resource directors at Fortune 100 companies throughout the New York
tri-state area. Time and a Half
• Members of the Economics Department made presentations at the
21st Annual Congress of the European Economic Association and
the 61st European Meeting of the
Econometric Society in Vienna:
Neenan Professor James Anderson
presented “Revenue Tariff Reform”;
Asst. Prof. Ingela Alger presented
“Altruism, Climate and Evolution”;
Asst. Prof. Fabio Ghironi presented “Business Cycles and Firm
Dynamics” and “The Valuation
Channel of External Adjustment”;
Asst. Prof. Matteo Iacoviello and
Marina Pavan presented “Uninsured Earnings Risk and Household Borrowing: The 1970s vs the
1990s.”
• Adj. Lect. Michael Raiger
(Philosophy) presented “‘I shot the
Albatross’: A Causal Explanation of
the Mariner’s Act” at the Coleridge
Summer Conference in Cannington, England.
• Prof. Solomon Friedberg (Mathematics) presented “Non-minimal
theta lifting” at the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology, Zurich and
“Multiple Dirichlet series attached
to Weyl groups” at the Conference
on Zeta Functions, Independent
University of Moscow.
•CNN interviewed Prof. Ellen
A funeral was held yesterday for John F. Desmond, a mechanic in the
Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Shop who died Oct. 14. He
was 54.
A Newton native, Mr. Desmond worked for Boston College for 37
years. He was the son of Eleanor P. (Reilly) Desmond and the late Thomas
E. Desmond and brother of Boston College Police Sgt. Joseph Desmond.
Besides his mother and brother, Mr. Desmond is survived by his wife
Patricia A. (Bennett) Desmond, his children Christopher S., Joseph T. and
Kelly A. Desmond, brothers Thomas, William, Edward and Richard, sisters
Mary Cicciu and Eleanor Miele and two grandchildren.
Donations in his name may be made to West Baseball League, Inc., 48
Winnifred Road, Brockton, MA 02301.
• Asst. Prof. Damian Betebenner
(LSOE): $707, Colorado Department of Education, “Growth
Analysis.”
“Eddie” Pellagrini, second from left, as a Boston Red Sox rookie in 1946 with
(L-R) Ted Williams, John F. Kennedy - then a candidate for the US Congress
- and Detroit Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg.
Ex-Baseball Coach Pellagrini Dead
Edward C. “Eddie” Pellagrini, a
former major league baseball player who coached Boston College
baseball teams from 1957 through
1988, died on Oct. 11 at South
Shore Hospital in Weymouth. He
was 88.
During his 30-season coaching
career at the University, Mr. Pellagrini led his teams to 359 victories
– a school record – along with 17
winning seasons, seven post-season
berths in the NCAA district I playoffs and three appearances in the
College World Series – 1960, 1961
and 1967.
A native of Roxbury, Mr. Pellagrini played in the Boston Red
Sox’ minor league organization
after graduating from Roxbury
Memorial High School. He spent
four years in the US Navy during
World War II and returned to
make the Red Sox’ major league
roster in time for the 1946 season.
In his Red Sox debut at Fenway Park on Opening Day, April
22, 1946, Mr. Pellagrini thrilled
the hometown crowd by hitting a
homerun in his first major league
at-bat.
An infielder, Mr. Pellagrini played 11 years in the major
leagues for the Red Sox, St. Louis
Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles), Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates.
When he retired from professional baseball in 1957, he was
hired by Boston College Athletic
Director Bill Flynn to coach the
Eagles’ team. Mr. Pellagrini was
the first coach to be hired by Mr.
Flynn, who also was appointed
athletic director that same year.
Mr. Pellagrini, who was as revered for his baseball knowledge
and engaging personality as much
as his coaching success, was inducted into the American Baseball
Coaches Hall of Fame in 1994.
He is the only Boston College
representative to receive the ABCA
honor.
Mr. Pellagrini was the husband
of the late Helen Pellagrini. He is
survived by three children and two
grandchildren.
A funeral Mass was held at St.
Francis Xavier Church in Weymouth on Oct. 13. Burial was at
the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.
Donations in his memory may
be made to the Boston College Diamond Club, in care of the Boston
College Athletic Association.
-Reid Oslin
• Church in the 21st Century Director Tim Muldoon was a speaker
at the international conference of
the Institutum Historicum Societatis
Iesu in Loyola, Spain. His essay
“Meditations on the 18th annotations in a consumer society” was
part of the jubilee year celebration
event titled “The History and Practice of the Spiritual Exercises.”
Jobs
•Assistant/Associate Director,
Classes, Alumni
•Administrative Secretary, Development
•Manager, Help Center, Computing Lab, Information Technology
Services •Senior Faculty Support Specialist,
Chemistry Department
•Program and Events/Technology
Support Assistant, Career Center
•Assistant Manager, Dining Services (2 positions)
•Training Communications
Specialist, Information Technology
Services (2 positions)
•Senior Sytems Programmer
(MVS-ZOS), Information Technology - Systems Services •Bioinformatics Programmer, Biology Department
•Web Producer, Office of Marketing Communications •Associate Director, Office of Marketing Communications For more information on employment
at Boston College see www.bc.edu/bcjobs
T he B oston C ollege
Chronicle
october 19, 2006
LOOKING AHEAD
READINGS•LECTURES•
DISCUSSIONS
Oct. 19
•“Stress and the Good Life,” with
Prof. Joseph Tecce (Psychology) 9
a.m., McElroy Conference Room,
call ext.2-8532
• “Journey to the Sun” a film
directed by Yesim Ustaoglu, 7
p.m., Devlin 026, call ext.2-8100,
e-mail:artmusm@bc.edu
• “The Jesuit Tradition and the
Core Curriculum,” with Prof.
Richard Cobb Stevens (Philosophy), 7 p.m., McGuinn 121, call
ext.2-8095, e-mail:croninkl@
bc.edu.
Oct. 20
•“Diversity Challenge: Do Immigrants Catch or Carry Race and
Culture?” For more information
contact isprc@bc.edu or call ext.22482.
• “What is a Nation?” presented
by Pierre Manent, Centre de
Recherches Politiques Raymond
Aron, 4 p.m. McGuinn 121.
Contact geesh@bc.edu or call
ext.2-4144.
Oct. 21
•“The Least Dangerous Branch?
Liberty, Justice, and the U.S.
Supreme Court.” For more
information and to register, go to
www.bc.edu/supremecourt or call
ext.2-4820, 12:30 p.m., Robsham
Theater Arts Center.
Oct. 22
•“Co-Workers in the Vineyard
of the Lord: A Symposium on
the US. Bishops’ Statement on
Lay Ecclesial Ministry” 1:30 p.m.
Murray Function Room, Yawkey
Athletic Center, call ext.2-0470,
email: church21@bc.edu.
ror movie “Poltergeist”, 7 p.m.,
O’Connell House, email: concanem@bc.edu
Oct. 23
•Lectura Dantis: Purgatorio XV,
7:30 p.m., Devlin 101, email:
shepardl@bc.edu
Oct. 22
• “Bastien and Bastienne” by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Adj.
Lect. Barbara S. Gawlick (Music),
3 p.m., Gasson 100, call ext.26004, email: concerts@bc.edu.
Oct. 25
•“Slavery and the Asymmetry of
Evidence” with Jill Lepore, Harvard University, 7:30 p.m. Devlin
101, call ext.2-3705
email: paul.doherty.1@bc.edu.
MUSIC•ART•PERFORMANCE
Oct. 19
•“American Voices: An Original
Boston College Documentary”
7:30 p.m., Cushing 001, call
ext.5-1412, email: matthew.porter.2@bc.edu.
Oct. 20
• “Antigone” by Sophocles,
directed by Sheppard Barnett,
7:30 p.m., Robsham Theater Arts
Center, call ext.2-4002, email:
marion.doyle.1@bc.edu. Program
also runs Oct. 20.
• “Voices Of Imani Gospel Choir
Fall Concert”, 7 p.m., Trinity
Chapel, Newton Campus, call
ext.6-6423, email: gilmer@bc.edu.
•“BC bOp! Presents Swing Night
at Carney!” 9:00 p.m., Carney
Dining Hall, McElroy Commons,
call ext.2-3018, email: bowesk@
bc.edu.
Oct. 21
•Nights on the Heights: Featuring
Ghost Hunter Lorraine Warren
followed by a screening of the hor-
Oct. 25
•“The Memory of Water” directed
by Amanda Grazioli ’07, 8 p.m.
Bonn Studio, Robsham Theater
Arts Center, ext.2-4002, email:
marion.doyle.1@bc.edu
Oct. 27
•University Wind Ensemble concert, 8 p.m., St. Ignatius Church.
ONGOING EXHIBITIONS
• “Cosmophilia: Islamic Art from
the David Collection, Copenhagen, hours: Monday-Friday 11
a.m.-4 p.m., weekends: 12 noon
to 5 p.m., for more information
call (617)552-8587 or email
artmusm@bc.edu.
• “Francis Xavier: Jesuit Missions in the Far East” in the Burns
Library, through Dec. 3., hours:
9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through
Friday, call ext.2-3282.
• “My Monster is in Safe Keeping:
The Samuel Beckett Collection
at Boston College” Irish Room
and Fine Print Room, through
Jan. 31, 2007, hours: 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. Monday through Friday, call
ext.2-3282.
For more information on campus
events, see events.bc.edu and www.
bc.edu/bcinfo
The Samuel Beckett exhibition at Burns Library includes correspondence, manuscripts, photographs and other materials.
Burns Exhibition Offers Insight
Into Life, Career of Beckett
An exhibit honoring the centennial of the birth of acclaimed Irish playwright Samuel Beckett is now on display at Boston College’s John J. Burns
Library of Rare Books and Special Collections. The free public exhibit,
titled “…my monster is in safe keeping,” will be on view throughout the
main exhibit floor of Burns Library through Jan. 31.
The exclusive exhibit, which includes items never before displayed in
the United States, is comprised of correspondence, manuscripts, posters,
photographs, publications and other papers by and about Samuel Beckett
(1906-1989), winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 and noted
for works that include “Waiting for Godot.”
The exhibit is drawn from Boston College’s celebrated Beckett Collection, considered to be one of the world’s finest. It is comprised of more
than 400 manuscripts and other pieces collected by the playwright’s friends
Calvin and Joann Israel, as well as correspondence between Beckett and
North American literary agent Barney Rosett, director Alan Schneider, and
French novelist and playwright Robert Pinget.
The exhibit is in celebration not only of the centennial of Beckett’s birth
but also of a new Burns Library acquisition, The Judith Schmidt Douw
Collection of Correspondence with Samuel Beckett, 1957-1984, which
contains more than 130 letters from Beckett to Judith Schmidt (later Judith Schmidt Douw), secretary to Barney Rosett of Grove Press, Beckett’s
American publisher.
For more information, see www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubaf/06/Burns_
Beckett.pdf or visit the Burns Web site at www.bc.edu/libraries/centers/
burns/.
—Office of Public Affairs
Wolfe Feels at Home with BC
Continued from page 5
can democracy, in the process
fomenting a new brand of populism he finds troubling.
Add to this a public that is by
turns indifferent to, ignorant of,
and isolated from, the country’s
political process — where accountability and bipartisanship
are increasingly rare commodities — and you’ve got a democracy in trouble, says Wolfe.
“This is not a call to sweep
out the Republicans and vote
in the Democrats, because —
much as I might like to wish
otherwise — it won’t improve
the quality of our democratic
life,” he says. “Would it help if
Congress addressed its notorious
lobbying problem, or got serious
about campaign finance reform,
or stood up to the executive
branch? Sure, but again, that
won’t fix everything.
“What has to happen is,
Americans need to take a greater
interest in the way their democracy is supposed to work: Pay attention to the way elections take
place, the way laws are passed
and, most of all, how their expectations are shaped. American
democracy is something to be
proud of, because it’s inspired
people throughout the world as
well as in our own country;
now we need to make it work
again.”
Perhaps the young men and
women Wolfe sees each week
at his seminar will help to enact
that change. But Wolfe is not
about to get on a metaphorical
soapbox and urge them to the
streets: He’ll offer some history,
perhaps a little personal perspective, and nudge the students to
provide their own. On this particular afternoon, the discussion
for a time focuses on religious
movements and 18th to 19thcentury America (“How do we
reconcile evangelicalism and its
pessimism — especially Calvinism — with America’s penchant
for optimism?” Wolfe asks),
and leaders and activists such
as Jonathan Edwards and John
Wesley.
Eventually, the time-line shifts
to the present, and the future.
Wolfe notes the recent death
of former Massachusetts Governor Edward King ’48, a Catholic Democrat, and the Kerry
Healey-Deval Patrick gubernatorial race — “An Episcopalian
Republican versus a Protestant
Democrat” — as heralding a
new era in Bay State politics.
Wolfe turns to the national
election campaign, and the X
factor that may shape this and
future political seasons: Has the
Evangelical-Christian conservative movement peaked? Wolfe
says he, and a few other observers, think it may have — not
so much due to controversy or
gaffe, but, ironically, a generation gap of sorts.
“The question is, are these
young white Evangelicals as
conservative as their parents?”
says Wolfe, noting that the student newspaper at Baylor — an
institution with a socially and
religiously conservative lineage
— recently endorsed the concept of gay marriage. “Let’s look
at it this way: What does it mean
to be ‘born again’? It means you
had a moment in which you
broke from your family’s religious tradition. So what if you’re
a child of someone who’s born
again — do you have a similar
moment?”
“The kind of issues I’m concerned with resonate with the Jesuit, Catholic tradition,” says Wolfe about his role at BC. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
In addition, Wolfe says, it’s
hard to believe that the sociopolitical common ground some
Catholics and Protestants might
have found during this recent
“Era of the Evangelicals” will
hold indefinitely. “If so, what
will religion mean then? Maybe
people will go back to separating
religion from politics.”
Yet Wolfe is quick to emphasize the fallibility of pundits,
he included, when it comes to
predicting the future of political
movements.
“I remember, sometime in
the late 1960s, writing that
‘liberalism is the future of this
country,’” he tells the students.
“It certainly looked that way:
There had been JFK, although
he sadly left too soon, and then
LBJ and the Civil Rights Act. If
you were a liberal, you thought
‘We’re here, this is it.’ But then
in about five years, everything’s
changed, and you were on the
outside looking in.
“It’s easy to get caught up in
the moment, and to overlook
what afterwards seems obvious,”
he says, a smile forming. “I guess
that’s why I’m never short of
material to write about.”