Boston College Chronicle

ChronicleThe BosTon College

ChronicleMAY 26, 2011 VOL. 19 NO. 18

Published by the Boston College Office of News & Public Affairs

INSIDE: 3 4 9

USPS MAILING ADDRESS

BY MELISSA BEECHER STAFF WRITER

“When one of my colleagues asks about Leon Ratz,” says Vice Provost for Undergraduate Aca-demic Affairs Donald Hafner, “I usually start by saying, ‘Look, you probably are not going to believe most of what I’m about to tell you...’”

The high praise from Haf-ner echoes what countless faculty members say about Ratz, winner of the 2011 Edward H. Finnegan, SJ, Memorial Award — Boston Col-lege’s most prestigious graduation honor, given to the student who best exemplifies the spirit of BC’s motto, “Ever to Excel.”

Ratz says it’s a motto he has considered and reflected on many times during his years at BC, which have seen him pursue academic and extracurricular interests in the arms trade and its impact on hu-man rights violations.

“Growing up, my parents taught me to do the best I could, no matter what I did. When I take on a challenge, I’m personally committed to not only completing

the challenge but to go above and beyond even my own expectations. BC really has fostered that drive,” said Ratz, a Presidential Scholar who earned his degree in political science.

Born in the Ukraine, Ratz im-migrated with his parents, Larry and Yelena, to the United States in 1994, eventually settling in Fair-lawn, NJ. Ratz said his family his-tory – his parents were part of a persecuted Jewish minority in the Soviet Union and many family members were killed during the Holocaust – had a profound im-pact on him.

“Knowing about those experi-ences formed a deep awareness of

BY THE OFFICE OF NEWS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Boston College seniors amassed an impressive trove of post-graduate fellowships and scholarships dur-ing the now completed 2010-11 academic year, highlighted by 13 Fulbrights. The prestigious grants — which support a year’s post-baccalaureate study abroad — have become a regular, and welcome, feature of the University’s academic achievements.

In addition to the 13 graduating seniors who have formally received Fulbrights, at press time two others selected as alternates were awaiting confirmation of funding for their projects. Several Boston College alumni and graduate students also were selected as Fulbright recipients or alternates this year. [Graduating senior John Kost and Lynch School of Education graduate student Sarah Ash were awarded Fulbrights but declined to accept.]

This year’s crop of BC Fulbright scholars will trek to such countries as Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Germany, Korea, Nepal, Spain and Vietnam. Many will teach English, and all look forward to sharing as-pects of American culture even as they learn about their host countries’ language and culture. BC grads also will study Poland’s efforts to halt

human trafficking, explore Spain’s arts communities, and learn about perceptions of immigration and eth-nic heritage in Argentina, among other projects.

NAME: Soumia Aitelhaj ’10 (Alternate)HOMETOWN: Revere, Mass.DESTINATION: MoroccoPROJECT: Travel through Moroccan villages to record elder women who com-pose Amazigh poetry, then work with part-time English faculty member Kim-berly Garcia to translate into English and publish as a book.PLANS: Pending additional funding, would continue the project by producing a documentary of Amazigh poetry and culture.

NAME: Sebastian AgredoHOMETOWN: Rego Park, NYDESTINATION: GermanyPROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-shipPLANS: Work for a private emergency medical services company to gain expe-rience in the medical field; afterwards, continue education in medical school, or pursue graduate studies with an eye toward career in philosophy. “For me, the Fulbright Program and the opportunity to teach in Germany will open new paths for cultural and personal growth. It represents the steps I have taken throughout my academic career to establish a lasting relationship with the country in which I was born, and it will offer me new insights into the

COMMENCEMENT 2011

Tomorrow’s Boston College Law School Commencement will take place at 10:30 a.m. in Conte Forum instead of Newton Campus. For more information, see http://www.bc.edu/schools/law.

BY ED HAYWARD STAFF WRITER

Community and civility, two virtues that have helped propel American society, should remain foremost in the minds of the Bos-ton College Class of 2011 as the new graduates chart their courses through life, United States Sec-retary of Transportation Ray LaHood told more than 3,700 students receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees Monday at the University’s 135th Com-mencement Exercises in Alumni Stadium.

LaHood, who received an honorary Doctor of Public Ad-ministration degree, asked the graduates to pursue community and civility, which he said have allowed the nation to persevere through good times and bad.

“As you depart Chestnut Hill

this afternoon, bring your dedica-tion to strong community and active civility as well,” LaHood said. “Take these values with you. They will hold you in good stead. You will do well by them. Carry these values into your lives and careers, into your neighbor-hoods and churches, into your small businesses or large firms, into your city halls or state capi-

tals. Open your minds to de-liberations, to give-and-take, to compromise. You’d be surprised just how often paths of com-mon courtesy lead to unexpected places.”

University President William P. Leahy, SJ, told the graduates that they would be well-served by their academic and personal growth to help address the many

pressing issues facing the world. He noted that every generation faces complex issues and uncer-tainties and that each must re-spond to those challenges.

“Your challenges today are no different from graduates in the past: Every age has had problems to face,” Fr. Leahy said. “Just as we were hopeful that your prede-cessors could overcome the dif-ficulties of their times, we believe that you have the knowledge, skills, values, and determination to confront and resolve today’s problems. I am confident that God will be with you and sustain you in the future as He has in the past.

“May you be forces for good and powerful examples for those around you, and may God con-tinue to bless you and your fami-lies,” Fr. Leahy concluded.

In addition to LaHood, hon-orary degrees were presented to: New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. Chairman James S. Davis and Vice Chairman Anne M. Da-vis — who is managing trustee of the New Balance Charitable Foundation; Boston College Se-nior Vice President James P. Mc-Intyre ’57, MEd ’61, EdD ’67; and BC Trustee Associate Sylvia Q. Simmons MEd’62, PhD’90, retired president of the American Student Assistance Corporation.

Political science major Leon Ratz was honored with BC’s top commencement prize, the Ed-ward H. Finnegan, SJ, Memorial Award for the student who best exemplifies the University’s mot-to “Ever to Excel.” [see separate story this page]

A seven-term Congressman from Illinois, LaHood was named

German identity, thus giving me a greater appreciation and understanding for the similarities and differences between the American and German cultures.”

NAME: Lauren BlodgettHOMETOWN: Peabody, Mass.DESTINATION: Austria PROJECT: Work in conjunction with a professor at the University of Innsbruck to examine global implications of US non-participation in the International Code Council.PLANS: Attend law school, work for Habitat for Humanity International.“With my 100-page senior thesis as a springboard for my Fulbright study, I will utilize the resources in Innsbruck to contribute to the scholarly material on this relatively new institution.”

NAME: Leigh Cameron ’09 (Alternate)HOMETOWN: Bedford, NHDESTINATION: New ZealandPROJECT: Through Lincoln Univer-sity, will research and write case studies on initiatives in Lincoln and Christchurch to determine how the Transition Towns movement, as well as the permaculture principles it embodies, can help commu-nities transition to social and ecological sustainability. PLANS: To advance community sus-tainability efforts in the US either through government work or as an educator. NAME: Lake CorethHOMETOWN: Mount Kisco, NYDESTINATION: Argentina

Leon Ratz

Lee

Pelle

grin

iFinnegan Award

Ratz Committed to Rising Above the Challenges

Continued on page 7

Continued on page 5

13 Fulbrights Among Fellowship Honors

Continued on page 12

LaHood: ‘Strong Community, Active Civility’‘Take these values with you,’ Transportation Secretary tells grads

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood speaks at Monday’s Commence-ment Exercises in Alumni Stadium. (Photo by Gary Gilbert)

Update on campus construction projects

Playground dedicated to BC students

‘Parting Thoughts’ from BC retirees

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The BosTon College

ChronicleMAY 26, 2011

DIRECTOR OF NEWS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Jack DunnDEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NEWS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Patricia DelaneyEDITOR

Sean SmithCONTRIBUTING STAFF

Melissa BeecherEd HaywardReid Oslin

Rosanne PellegriniKathleen SullivanEileen Woodward

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Gary GilbertLee 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 News & Public Affairs, 14 Mayflower Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 (617)552-3350. Distributed free to faculty and staff offices and other locations on campus. Periodicals postage paid at Boston, MA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to The Boston College Chronicle, Office of News & Public Affairs, 14 Mayflower Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467.

Contact Chronicle via e-mail: [email protected] editions of the Boston College Chronicle are available via the

World Wide Web at http://www.bc.edu/chronicle.

The BosTon College

Chronicle

AROUND CAMPUS

So far, so goodIt’s not even a year old, but the Law School’s Digital Com-

mons Repository has had more than 200,000 downloads — that comes out to an average of more than 18,000 a month.

Launched 11 months ago, the Digital Commons Repository collects and preserves all scholarly work of the BC Law commu-nity in digital form to share intellectual property with a global audience, said Digital Services and Institutional Repository Librarian Travis Emick.

“This has been a very organic effort and we’re pleased to see that so many articles have been downloaded,” he said. “We know that many people have been finding the works through Google or Google Scholar searches. Other universities, research-ers, school teachers and high school debate teams have all linked to some content, which shows the breadth of who is accessing the material.”

The repository currently holds nearly 4,000 papers and the number is growing every day, according to Emick. Among its contents are offerings from select faculty papers, lectures and presentations, the BC Law webcast archive, the Boston College Law Review, the Boston College International & Comparative Law Review, the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, the BC Third World Law Journal and the Law and Justice in the Americas Working Paper Series.

Emick said he and staff members Lily Olson and Filippa Anzalone are continuing to upload more materials. Making them available helps to “fulfill the Law School’s commitment to the wide distribution of its scholarship,” he said.

The Digital Commons Repository can be found at http://lawd-igitalcommons.bc.edu/

—MB

Spelling it outAs the last movie of the last Harry

Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” — due out in July — represents the end of the official Potter franchise (barring, say, a Broadway musical or animated series). Amid this final burst of Pottermania, Romance Languages and Literatures Professor Emerita Vera Lee has pub-lished On the Trail of Harry Potter, which she touts as the first book-length literary analy-sis of all seven Harry Potter volumes.

“Most studies that look at part or all of the series fo-cus on aspects such as mag-ic and fantasy, philosophy, morality, myth, religion or spirituality,” explains Lee. “But instead of trying to explain what J.K. Rowling created in Harry Potter, I wanted to demonstrate how she created it — and why, because of that, the series has been so successful.”

In the book, Lee discusses the in-

dividual and collective natures of the four main characters (that’s Harry, Hermione, Ron and Dumbledore, in case you didn’t know), and examines Rowling’s writing technique and style, including her use of humor. Lee also delves into the “spin-offs” Rowling created from the Harry Potter books and compares the Potter books with their film adaptations.

While in her book she does note the critical views of the Potter series, Lee makes no secret of her for the subject matter. “I became an ardent fan of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling from the get-go,” says Lee, who was given the first book — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone — by her daughter, who had

read it with her daughters. “The Sorcerer’s Stone had me laugh-

ing out loud; the others drew me in irresistibly. I was hooked. In fact, after reading all the seven volumes twice, I

thought, ‘How can I remain in this world of Harry Potter?’ Then I real-ized I could just write a book about it.”

Like most Potter fans, Lee says she was disappointed that the series has now ended. “But writing about the series was so fulfilling, it seemed to put closure on the loss.”

Fortunately, Lee says, her life as a Harry Potter authority will go on even after the last incantation is uttered: She’s giving a presentation on “The Fans and the Films” at the LeakyCon conference — an annual event orga-nized by staff of The Leaky Cauldron, arguably the top Harry Potter website — in July, at Wellesley Library in the late summer and this autumn at the Potterwatch conference in North Carolina. She also has started a blog [http://harrypotterdiscussiongroup.blogspot.com] and a Facebook page.

On the Trail of Harry Potter is available at the Boston College Bookstore and from Pitapat Press [http://www.pitapatpress.com].

—SS

A wealth of healthHealthy You, the University-wide

effort to promote health and well-ness among BC employees, has been a healthy success, organizers say, with 2,024 employees and spouses complet-ing the Harvard Pilgrim Health Ques-tionnaire aimed at identifying potential health issues.

Robert Lewis, associate vice pres-ident for human resources and the driving force behind the initiative, said he was very pleased with the num-ber of participants, which exceeded University expectations, and with the overall response to the Healthy You campaign.

“I have been particularly encour-aged by our employees’ desire to know their numbers and to increase their awareness of their own health. The BC community has really embraced this initiative.”

This spring, Boston College offered six “Know Your Numbers” biometric screenings in which employees received their specific numbers for height, weight, blood pressure, total choles-terol, HDL cholesterol and glucose. The information was then submitted through a confidential Health Ques-tionnaire to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care nurses/coaches who have offered recommendations for corrective ac-tions, as needed.

One BC employee was taken to the hospital during his screening when the nurse discovered that his blood pres-

sure was dangerously high. Through Healthy You, he has taken steps to address the underlying causes of his health issues. In another case, Steven Munger, a manager of human resource systems in IT Applications Services, said that as a result of completing the Health Questionnaire he was assigned a wellness coach who has helped him to lose 15 pounds, lower his sodium

intake and reduce his blood pressure. “Since April 6 I have been work-

ing with my wellness coach and will continue to do so for the next year as we pursue my weight goal,” he said. “The Healthy You initiative has made a tremendous difference for me personally.”

Lewis also cited a group of 21 em-ployees who, inspired by the Healthy You campaign, started a Weight Watchers group in St. Clements, as an example of the initiative’s positive effect. In addition, the Flynn Recre-ation Complex has offered lunchtime seminars on health and lifestyle issues, including one on nutrition that at-tracted 200 employees. The Healthy You website, www.harvardpilgrim.org/bostoncollege, and the Boston Con-sortium’s Healthy You website www.healthyyouhmi.org, have also experi-enced a steady stream of visits from employees who have found a wealth of

information on healthy living. By late June, Lewis said, BC will

receive the aggregate data from Har-vard Pilgrim that will be used to create employee wellness programs that may range from nutrition and smoking ces-sation to exercise and stress manage-ment. “The first step will be to analyze the data from the Health Question-naire to see what we can do to address employee needs,” said Lewis. “In the year to come, we look forward to pro-viding new programs and additional information to continue to promote a healthier BC workforce.”

Lewis said all 2,024 BC employees who responded to Health Questionnaire will be given the opportunity to earn the $100 gift certificate, including the 300 who did not provide all of their biometric readings. Those employees who did not provide all of their biometric information will be notified by Harvard Pilgrim in the near future and will be able to take advantage of an extended deadline to supply their remaining numbers online.

“We want as many people as possible who took the questionnaire to be able to get the $100 incentive,” said Lewis. “All BC employees deserve to share in the suc-cess of this effort to make our workforce as healthy as possible. The long term goal of Healthy You is to have a positive impact on the health of our community and as a result reduce health care costs for our employees and the University.”

—JD

Pots of flowers awaited planting around campus earlier this month. (Photo by Sean Smith)

FULL BLOOM

This edition of the Boston College Chronicle is the last of the 2010-2011 academic year. Chronicle will publish a summer edition in July, and return to a regular publication schedule in September. Keep up to date on Boston College news and in-formation via the BCInfo website, http://www.bc.edu/bcinfo

The BosTon College

ChronicleMAY 26, 2011 3

AROUND CAMPUS

BY REID OSLIN STAFF WRITER

Stokes Hall will be reaching for the sky this summer – at the rate of about 15 feet a month.

With its foundation in place, structural steel rising skyward and concrete masonry walls and floor decking ready for installation, the framework of Boston College’s new four-story, 183,000-square foot academic building will ex-pand into place this summer and University administrators say con-struction of the new facility is on target for completion in the fall of 2012.

Construction on the north wing of Stokes hall is set to move upward by one level every four weeks; work on the larger south wing will advance a level about every six weeks in the coming months.

“Even after such a hard win-ter, we will still stay on track by aggressively pushing this phase,” said Mary Nardone, associate vice president for capital projects man-agement. “This will be a very busy summer in terms of all of our large-scale construction projects.”

In addition to the installation of the framework structure of the

Stokes project, the arrival of gran-ite stone in mid-June will herald the beginning of work on Stokes Hall’s exterior walls, which will continue through the summer and fall months.

When completed, Stokes Hall will include faculty offices for Classical Studies, English, His-tory, Philosophy, Theology, the College of Arts & Sciences Honors Program, the Arts & Sciences Ser-vice Center, Academic Advising Center and First Year Experience offices, as well as 36 new class-rooms, a commons area, confer-ence rooms and outdoor gardens and plaza space. [For more on the Stokes Hall project, see the web-site http://tinyurl.com/3fj2lj7]

Three other major campus construction projects are also on target for completion during the upcoming academic year, said Nardone.

•The exterior and interior work on Gasson Hall will be completed in August and occupants of the University’s signature building are scheduled to move into the refurbished classroom and office structure prior to the start of the fall semester. Final aspects of the 15-month Gasson renovation project include the installation of

new windows and the rebuilding of the east and west porticos and stairways. Interior improvements include life safety and accessibility upgrades.

•On the Brighton Campus, interior renovations to the build-ing at 129 Lake Street (formerly Bishop Peterson Hall) will contin-ue through the summer months along with site and roadway drainage work in the vicinity. The

building is scheduled to be reoc-cupied this fall by the offices of the Financial Vice President and Human Resources departments that are currently located in More Hall.

•Construction of a new wing at the former Chancery building at 2121 Commonwealth Avenue is now underway, with erection of structural steel starting this month. The new addition will be weather-tight by the

end of summer, according to Nar-done, and completion of the project is scheduled for late February of 2012.

The reconstructed Chancery facil-ity will house the University’s Ad-vancement and Alumni staffs.

Check in at BCInfo [www.bc.edu/bcinfo] for news and announcements regarding campus construction during the summer.

Contact Reid Oslin at [email protected]

In keeping with the ongoing “Got Green?” energy conservation campaign, Boston College administrators remind the University community that there are many easy, cost-saving ways to cut energy consumption in the spring and summer months – both on campus and at home.

•Close drapes and blinds to keep out direct sunlight during the day.•Keep windows closed during the heat of the day.•Set air conditioner thermostats higher in order to minimize cooling and energy use.•Turn the air conditioner off 30 minutes before you leave.•Don’t set your thermostat at a colder setting than normal when you turn on your air conditioner. It will not cool any faster.•Limit the opening of refrigerators.•Use a toaster-oven or small microwave when cooking small to mod-erately sized meals.•Please continue to turn off lights and appliances (not computers) when you leave a room and unplug chargers when not in use.•When they’re not in use, turn off — or where possible unplug — items (other than computers) that consume electricity: lights, indi-vidual coffee makers, televisions and other electronic equipment. Laptops, battery chargers, TVs, stereos and other electronics continue to draw electricity when plugged in. In particular, unplug laptops and chargers (cell phone, iPod, et al) when you are not recharging the batteries.•Turn off your computer monitor when it is not in use.•Review requirements and assignments for turning off office equip-ment such as printers, copiers and other equipment.•Turn off office, classroom and task lights when not in use.•When possible use task lights, with compact fluorescent lighting, rather than overhead lights. Open office blinds for natural light.•Run full loads in washers and dryers. Use “warm” instead of “hot” water settings whenever possible.

For more on energy conservation at BC, see http://www.bc.edu/green

BY KATHLEEN SULLIVAN STAFF WRITER

Boston College has been named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, which rec-ognizes the University as a leader among institutions of higher edu-cation for engaging its students, faculty and staff in meaningful volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors, including the scope and innova-tion of service projects, the ex-tent to which service-learning is embedded in the curriculum, the school’s commit-ment to long-term campus-commu-nity partnerships, and measurable community out-comes as a result of service.

“Congra tu la -tions to Boston College and its students for their dedication to service and com-mitment to improving their lo-cal communities,” said Patrick A. Corvington, chief executive officer of Corporation for Na-tional and Community Service (CNCS), which administers the annual Honor Roll. “As the Class of 2011 crosses the stage to pick up their diplomas, more and more will be going into the world with a commitment to

public service and the knowledge that they can make a difference in their community and their own lives through service to others, thanks to the leadership of these institutions.”

Boston College is one of 641 colleges and universities named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. There was a nine percent increase in the number of institutions vying for honor roll status in 2010.

Volunteer and Service Learn-ing Center Daniel Ponsetto said, “Anyone who works with our students on a regular basis knows the passion and determination

that they bring to service. In addition to the many pro-grams the Univer-sity sponsors to en-gage our students in serving others, new initiatives emerge each year, allowing more stu-dents to become involved as volun-

teers. “This recognition by the Cor-

poration for National and Com-munity Service is a confirmation of our institutional commitment to fostering civic engagement among our students, and also confirms their dedication to par-ticipating in the social mission of our Jesuit, Catholic university.”

Boston College’s commitment to long-term campus-community

partnerships and bringing about measurable community outcomes is best exemplified in its nomi-nated 2009-10 initiatives such as the Boston Connects program (recently expanded and renamed City Connects), St. Columbkille Partnership School, and Boston College Neighborhood Center.

The Boston Connects pro-gram, directed by Kearns Profes-sor of Urban Education and In-novative Leadership Mary Walsh and in place in 14 Boston Public Schools, combats in the effects of poverty and non-academic bar-riers to school success. Boston Connects schools have seen in-creased test scores and improved health habits among its students.

The BC Neighborhood Cen-ter, located in the Brighton neighborhood it serves, provides Boston residents and agencies with services such as tutoring, mentoring, goodwill visits to schools and hospitals, commu-nity clean-ups and English lan-guage instruction, among other initiatives.

At St. Columbkille Partner-ship School, a collaboration among BC, the Archdiocese of Boston and St. Columbkille Par-ish, 17 teachers have earned de-grees from BC, tuition-free. The University also provides student-teachers, interns and tutors for the school, as well as curriculum development and information technology assistance.

Contact Kathleen Sullivan at [email protected]

Campus Construction Update

Stokes and Gasson Projects Continuing On Schedule

An aerial view of the Stokes Hall construction site.

“Anyone who works with

our students on a regular

basis knows the passion

and determination that

they bring to service.”

—Daniel Ponsetto

BC Makes President’s Service Honor Roll

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A long-standing center devoted to supporting students, families and communities has been re-named, re-flecting its innovative efforts to devel-op the most effective ways to address the out-of-school factors that influ-ence how students learn and thrive in school.

The Center for Optimized Stu-dent Support replaces the former title of the Center for Child, Family and Community Partnerships, which is located in the Lynch School of Edu-cation.

Under the direction of Kearns Professor of Urban Education and Innovative Leadership Mary Walsh, the center serves as a national resource for researchers, training programs, and professional development. The center seeks to provide the latest re-search and evidence-based practices to school administrators and student support practitioners, such as school counselors, social workers, adjustment counselors, and school psychologists.

“Through our research, the Cen-ter for Optimized Student Support will be able to cast new light on the impact of out-of-school factors that affect children’s ability to achieve in school, as well as the solutions that

have been developed,” said Walsh. “We know that schools cannot close the achievement gap on their own without the active contribution of the wider community. Our charge is to research, identify, and disseminate best practices in student support, and we are excited to be at the forefront of this important field.”

Nationwide, there is agreement that schools cannot close the achieve-ment gap without addressing the out-of-school factors that influence students’ success. The center devel-ops, tests, and disseminates innova-tive practices that address these out-of-school factors (social/emotional, health, and family) by optimizing student support in schools.

Current initiatives of the center include implementing City Connects, a research-based approach to student support currently in 17 Boston pub-lic elementary schools and, in 2011-12, in six Springfield, Mass., public schools. In addition, the center works on the New Balance Foundation cur-riculum to improve health and fitness, is developing a student support model for pre-schoolers and implementing the City Connects model in 16 Bos-ton Catholic elementary schools.

—Ed Hayward

COOKING UP A FAREWELL

The Boston College Police De-partment held a barbecue on Lower Campus last week for members of the Class of 2011. (Photos by Ed Hayward)

LSOE Center Changes Name to Reflect an Evolving Mission


Two Boston College students who never lived to realize their dreams of becoming teachers were remembered and honored last week at St. Columbkille Partner-ship School.

On May 19, a playground at the school was dedicated in mem-ory of Patricia Coyle and Karen Noonan, Lynch School of Educa-tion students who were killed in December 1988 when the plane carrying them back to the US from a semester abroad was destroyed by a terrorist bomb over Locker-bie, Scotland. The bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103 killed all 243 passengers and 16 crew members, as well as 11 residents of Lockerbie.

The playground was made pos-sible by a gift from Boston College alumni Jim and Krisann Miller of Wellesley. Coyle was Krisann Mill-er’s twin sister. The Millers, Coyle and Noonan were all members of the Class of 1990.

Jim Miller is a member of the board of trustees at St. Columb-kille Partnership School and has been a dedicated benefactor of the school, specifically in launching its early childhood program.

Teaching had been both Coyle and Noonan’s passion, said Kri-sann Miller, recalling that her sister had student taught in Boston and “really loved it.” The playground dedication to her sister and Karen after so many years, Krisann added, was very meaningful for the fami-lies.

Parents Matt and Jan Coyle of Connecticut and Pat and Nancy Noonan of Maryland attended the

dedication ceremony, which fea-tured singing by St. Columbkille students in the early childhood program. Boston College Chancel-lor J. Donald Monan, SJ, who was president of BC in 1988, offered the invocation.

“We gather to imprint on this simple human space, set aside for the joy and laughter and happy activity of schoolchildren, not only the names, but also the aspira-tions and the ideals, of two young women, Patricia Coyle and Karen Noonan, who went before us to the Lord at the very zenith of their youthful beauty and their good-ness,” said Fr. Monan.

Boston College President Wil-liam P. Leahy, SJ, who led the University into its historic col-

laboration with the Archdiocese of Boston and St. Columbkille parish to revitalize the struggling Catholic school, helped to unveil the plaque displaying Noonan and Coyle’s names.

“We dedicate ourselves to con-tinuing the great work of Catholic education,” he said. Referring to the young students attending the ceremony, he added, “You are so much of our future. The future of this neighborhood. The future for our city, for our nation, for our Church.”

Peter McLaughlin, chair of the board of trustees for St. Columb-kille Partnership School, said, “I am pleased and honored that St. Columbkille is able to commemo-rate [Coyle and Noonan’s] lives by

dedicating our playground to these very special women who loved children and the value of Catholic elementary school education. We expect the playground to be filled with laughter and fun — a place that Tricia and Karen would have loved.”

In his talk, St. Columbkille Head of School Bill Gartside touched on the themes of hope and resurrection. He noted that St. Columbkille is a “tremendous suc-cess story” and continues to thrive, citing the addition of a third K-2 class and expanded 4th grade in the fall. The school’s enrollment is on the upswing, from its current 304 to an expected 320-325 for 2011-12.

Lynch School of Education Ke-

arns Professor in Urban Education and Innovative Leadership Mary Walsh, a graduate of St. Columb-kille, talked about Jim Miller’s commitment to Catholic educa-tion and her first meeting with him a decade ago when he discussed the possibility of the University making a difference in Boston’s Catholic schools as they had done in the city’s public schools.

“This school and your alma ma-ter up the hill, Jim and Krisann, are grateful for your vision and gener-ous hearts,” said Walsh.

Coyle and Noonan’s fathers each offered thanks at the cer-emony. “It is very special to be here because Karen and Tricia love to teach the little people,” said Pat Noonan. “I want to say thank you to all those who devoted so much effort to this renovation, this play-ground and to this great school that’s a model for Boston and a model for the nation.”

Addressing the St. Columbkille students, Matt Coyle said, “You are lucky to arrive at school where you are loved. Anything is possible for you.”

At the conclusion of the cer-emony, two doves were released to the cheers of the students. The dove, a symbol of peace, appears in the logo of the school because the Gaelic name “Colum” means “dove.” With the incessant rain of the week having abated, the children were able to use the play-ground immediately following the dedication.

Watch a video about the ceremo-ny on the Chronicle YouTube chan-nel, www.youtube.com/bcchronicle


(L-R) Matt and Jan Coyle and Nancy and Pat Noonan were given an official greeting by a student from St. Columbkille Partnership School, where a playground was dedicated in the name of the Coyles’ and Noonans’ daughters, Boston College students who were killed in 1988. Looking on were University President William P. Leahy, SJ, and St. Columbkille Trustees Chair Peter McLaughlin. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

Local School Playground Dedicated to BC Students

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the 16th US secretary of trans-portation by President Barack Obama on Jan. 23, 2009, heading an agency with more than 55,000 employees and a $70 billion bud-get that oversees air, maritime and surface transportation missions.

LaHood, who earned a repu-tation for building bipartisan consensus during his time in the US House of Representatives, cautioned graduates not to be deterred by the rancor that of-ten defines the country’s politi-cal debate. Other examples from throughout history show the divi-siveness between political sides has been far worse.

The values of community and civility, he argued, provide a framework that allows the nation to do the work that continues to move America forward. Commu-nity “draws its meaning from the lasting importance of shared ritual and collective experience. It’s why you cheer against Notre Dame,” he said, drawing a loud cheer from the crowd.

He praised the class for the 550,000 hours of community ser-vice performed locally, as well as in locations such as Appalachia, New Orleans and Haiti.

But he reserved special recog-nition for senior Allison Lantero, asking her to stand as he quoted from her blog post, where she asked “Who is Ray LaHood?” and expressed her hope his speech would be short. He promised it would be, but not before giving Lantero a good-natured ribbing.

“Well, Allison, I’m Ray La-Hood and I promise I’ll be brief,” he said.

Cloudy skies did nothing to diminish the enthusiasm of stu-dents receiving their diplomas and reflecting on their years at BC.

“It definitely feels great today,” said Julian Yu, a political sci-ence major from Amherst, NH, as he walked with his classmates down Linden Lane. “The service component was so important to my experience here. There is defi-nitely a sense of community that is evident in our courses and in everything else we could experi-ence as undergraduates.”

Christina Muli, of Nairobi, Ke-nya, a psychology major and pre-med student, said getting to know more about her classmates and the world at large through a range of activities and clubs was the high-light of her time at the Heights.

“I loved my four years here,” said Muli. “Apart from the education, I got to learn so much from my friends and fellow students by getting in-volved in programs and clubs and service activities. It all made this a great place to be.”

Caroline Winn, a finance and marketing major from Lexington, Mass., said, “I’m really going to miss the friends I’ve made here during the last four years. They’re like my family.”

More than 3,700 undergrad-uate and graduate degrees were awarded to the Class of 2011. Among undergraduates, finance topped the list of majors with 289 degrees awarded, followed by economics (277), communication (265), English (179) and market-ing (174).

Contact Ed Hayward at [email protected]

COMMENCEMENT 2011

Anne M. DavisAs befits the vice chairman of a global leader in athletic footwear and apparel, the career of Anne Davis can only be described

as “high performance.” She joined New Balance in 1977 as its first director of human resources, seeking to build a caring, vibrant culture for its employees. She hit the ground running – introducing progressive training, teamwork, and motivational techniques that helped propel the company forward so that today it ranks among the world’s most respected shoe manufactur-ers.

As managing trustee of the New Balance Foundation, she manifests an abiding concern for future generations and is an effective proponent of healthy lifestyles and fitness for individuals and communities. She has overseen the distribution of mil-lions of dollars in support of education and initiatives seeking to confront and overcome the challenge of childhood obesity.

James S. DavisWith the determination of a marathon athlete, the spirit of an entrepreneur, and the generous heart of a philanthropist,

James S. “Jim” Davis has succeeded in helping our country become more physically fit and economically competitive.On the day of Boston’s famed Marathon in 1972, he became the owner of the New Balance Corporation in Brighton –

then a local firm of just six employees that produced 30 pairs of custom-made running shoes per day. Today, New Balance employs more than 5,000 people around the globe and has grown into the nation’s largest private company in the sporting goods industry.

Along with directing the impressive growth and popularity of New Balance products, he has long supported efforts to ad-vance health and fitness among all Americans. Recently, the New Balance Foundation joined First Lady Michelle Obama in a campaign to end childhood obesity and to promote healthy lifestyles for children and families. Earlier this year, it established the Center for Childhood Obesity Prevention, Clinical Research and Care at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.

Ray LaHoodPeople today are constantly on the move – via air, land, and sea. As Secretary of Transportation, it is Ray LaHood’s respon-

sibility to ensure that all travelers in the United States arrive as efficiently and safely as possible.Heading an agency with more than 55,000 employees and a $70 billion budget, Secretary LaHood has supported initiatives

to build a national high-speed passenger rail network, strengthen commercial bus and driver safety, protect airline consumers, and upgrade America’s oil and gas pipeline network. He has elevated the Secretary of Transportation office to a new level of public visibility, with 6,600 Facebook fans, 17,400 followers on Twitter, and a Fast Lane blog that boasts upwards of 40,000 or more hits a week.

A native of Peoria, Illinois, and once a junior high social studies teacher, he served as a Republican Congressman for 14 years, earning a reputation for consensus-building and promoting bipartisanship and civility among his colleagues. His willingness to reach across the aisle figured prominently in President Barack Obama’s decision to select him as a Cabinet member.

James P. McIntyreDuring his half-century as a student and administrator at “the Heights,” James P. McIntyre has had an immense impact

on the evolution of Boston College. He played a significant role in the development of the “Mods,” the Flynn Recreation Complex, Robsham Theater, Conte Forum, Merkert Chemistry Center, and the current Alumni Stadium. He also helped establish BC’s financial aid program and directed the University’s first major capital campaign.

He holds three degrees from Boston College and became the first lay vice president here in 1968, when he was named head of Student Affairs. Eight years later, he was appointed Vice President for University Relations, and in 1986 he assumed his current post as Senior Vice President. His 43 consecutive years of service as a vice president are unmatched in Jesuit higher education in the United States.

He has served on the boards of the Massachusetts Educational Finance Authority and Malden Catholic High School, his alma mater. He and his wife, Monica, met while working in BC admissions, married in 1962, and built their own Eagle’s Nest, raising six children – Mary, Peter, James Jr., Ann, Karalyn, and David – all BC alumni.

Sylvia Q. SimmonsThroughout her life as a teacher, administrator, wife, and parent, Sylvia Q. Simmons has sought to make education an

achievable goal for all. She began her career as a Montessori school instructor and later became an administrator in the Head Start preschool program. She subsequently worked as associate dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard and Radcliffe, and as associate vice president for academic affairs at the University of Massachusetts. In the 1990s, she served as vice president and eventually president of American Student Assistance, a corporation that helps students and families finance the cost of col-lege education. Her competence and reputation led Governor Deval Patrick in 2010 to ask that she assist in the development of a 10-year strategic plan for education in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the Lynch School of Education, and in 1966 became the first African-American female administrator at Boston College, when she was named registrar of the School of Management. In 1990 she was appointed a trustee of her alma mater, and currently serves as a trustee associate on the Student Life Committee.

HONORARY DEGREE CITATIONSFor the full texts, see ww.bc.edu/chronicle

University President William P. Leahy, SJ, with this year’s honorary degree recipients: front, left to right, Anne M. Davis, Ray LaHood, James P. McIntyre; back, left to right, James S. Davis, Fr. Leahy, Sylvia Q. Simmons. (Photo by Gary Gilbert)

Continued from page 1

LaHood Makes Case for ‘Community, Civility’

Carroll School of Management students start the processional to Alumni Sta-dium. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

Just one of the numerous congratulatory phone calls that took place in Alum-ni Stadium Monday. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

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COMMENCEMENT 2011

Seventy-two graduating Car-roll Graduate School of Manage-ment students participated in the school’s inaugural Oath of Ethical Conduct ceremony last Thursday in Fulton Hall.

In partnership with a number of graduate schools of business from around the country, the CG-SOM students pledged to lead in the interests of the greater good and create value responsibly and ethically.

University President William P. Leahy, SJ, and CSOM Associ-ate Dean Jeffrey Ringuest spoke at the event, along with Robert Winston ’60, namesake and bene-factor of the school’s Winston Center for Leadership and Eth-ics. Graduate Management As-sociation President George Herz led the oath.

In his remarks, Ringuest ex-plained the context for the in-troduction of the oath as an out-growth of a student initiative to define CGSOM’s core values: honesty and integrity, mutual re-spect, pursuit of excellence, and personal accountability. Although other business schools have imple-mented an oath of ethical con-

duct for its MBAs, Ringuest said, CGSOM students “wanted to do something more: They wanted to open this initiative up to all of our graduate students, not just our MBAs, and they wanted to not just stand in solidarity with MBAs at other schools around the world but to reaffirm the core val-ues of the Carroll School graduate programs.”

Christopher Grillo, a Connell School of Nursing administrative assistant and CGSOM student who co-organized the ceremony, described the event as “very fulfill-ing. The core values of the Carroll School are not just something on a piece of paper or at the bottom of an e-mail but ideals by which we live. Our values, whatever they may be, are challenged constantly.

“It’s important to have a clear understanding of one’s values and be confident enough to articulate those publicly. That’s what 72 students did last week and they have support from one another as they move on in their careers.”

To find out more about the Car-roll Graduate School of Manage-ment Oath of Ethical Conduct, see http://bit.ly/l6Oifn.

—Sean Smith

It’s a long trip from Managua, Nicaragua, to Chestnut Hill, but 1983 alumnus Felipe Mantica seems intent on making it for a while.

Each year since 2007, Mantica has made the trek to drop off his eldest child Felipe Jr. at Boston College. During the next four years, the Mantica traveling party grew, as the next eldest, Miguel (Class of 2012), and then Lucia (Class of 2013) also enrolled in BC. And while Felipe Jr. graduated this spring, Francisco has been accepted to BC and plans to be in this fall’s freshman class.

That’s four Mantica children so far — and seven more to go.“My Dad loved BC. Because of the great education he got here,

he was able to start his first business, which was distributing IBM computers in Nicaragua,” said Felipe Jr., who majored in finance and economics. BC was the first choice for Felipe Jr. and his sib-lings, who all were accepted via early action and never applied to any other colleges.

Felipe Jr. says he has enjoyed having his siblings with him for the latter part of his BC career. “I think it’s good for them having an older brother around because I have been able to give them advice on what courses to take and where to live. And I’ve introduced them to many of my friends.”

Although his other eight siblings stayed back in Managua, Felipe Jr. looked forward to having not only his parents and two BC siblings but also his grandparents and two uncles with him for Commencement.

“It’s just great having my family around,” said Felipe Jr., who plans to return to Nicaragua and work in his father’s business.

—Sean Smith

CGSOM Debuts Oath of Ethics

Carroll Graduate School of Management students taking the Oath of Ethical Conduct last week. (Photo by Caitlin Cunningham)

Mantica Family Keeps Managua-BC Connection Going

Felipe Mantica Jr. enjoyed Commencement with his family members from Nicaragua. (Photo by Caitlin Cunningham)

Major Gen. James C. McConville, left, and his wife Maria, pinned the gold bars of an Army second lieu-tenant on the shoulders of their son Michael at the Boston College Army ROTC Commissioning ceremony held last Sunday on Bapst Lawn. Michael — named “Distinguished Military Graduate” of the BC officer training unit — was one of 12 new Army officers from the Class of 2011 commissioned during the ceremony. (Photo by Christopher Soldt)

Preparation is everything on Com-mencement Day: above, this stu-dent came equipped for the damp weather; above left, one family brought along some distinctive props to cheer their graduate; below left, mortarboards are often the medium for heartfelt messages.

Photos by Caitlin Cunningham

The BosTon College


COMMENCEMENT 2011

the importance of human rights and the importance of protecting those rights,” said Ratz.

In high school, Ratz became in-volved with Amnesty International through its campaign to abolish the death penalty in New Jersey. As a student ambassador for AI, he met several Jesuits from St. Peter’s Col-lege and was impressed enough to consider Boston College because of its Jesuit affiliation.

“I was looking for a university that would bring social justice to the front of its mission and Boston College does that,” said Ratz.

During his first weeks on cam-pus, he said he “unexpectedly” be-came involved in Hillel when a residence hall mate invited him to Shabbat diner. “He took me to my first of many, many Shabbat din-ers here at BC. In an unexpected way, BC made me more Jew-ish. By coming to a school where religion plays such an impor-tant role in student formation, I had the opportunity to study my own faith.”

Over the next four years, Ratz would hold various positions within Hillel, including as president last year. Among his many accomplishments, he established BC as the first Jesuit University in the country to offer on-campus ser-vices for Jewish high holidays.

“That night was a wonderful and surreal experience,” Ratz re-members. “Here we were at a Je-suit, Catholic university, celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, with Jewish students, Catholic students, Muslim students...there were faculty in the crowd, Catholic priests. At that point it hit me, BC is a very special place where people from all different backgrounds can come together and find spirituality and faith in meaningful ways.”

Ratz’s continuing involvement in Amnesty International drew him to AI’s advocacy for a United Na-

tions Arms Trade Treaty that would establish legally binding, common standards for how countries import and export conventional weapons. Ratz credits a BC Advanced Study Grant for enabling him to con-duct research on the topic at AI’s London headquarters the summer following his freshman year.

“With the help of AI, I had the opportunity to start going to the United Nations my sophomore year. I went to various meetings about the Arms Trade Treaty and worked with the advocacy team of Amnesty at the UN,” said Ratz, who would shuttle between his classes at BC to New York City several times a week.

When negotiations on the treaty stalled, Ratz took action. “I was

sitting in O’Neill Library studying for a midterm in economics and an idea hit me: If governments want and need more time to dis-cuss critical areas of this treaty and there isn’t enough time in the offi-cial UN calendar,

why not organize something here in Boston?” Ratz said. “I was frustrated on how slow the negotiations were going and it was a situation where I took it in my own hands and said ‘What can I do to speed this up?’”

Leading a group of friends, he developed the Boston Symposium on the Arms Trade Treaty, a non-official working session for UN del-egates to focus on the treaty. Ratz secured $100,000 from three for-eign governments, gained the offi-cial endorsement from the US State Department and brought leaders from more than 30 countries to Boston. [The UN is scheduled to take up the treaty again this year.]

In his Finnegan Award nomi-nation letter for Ratz, Professor of Chemistry Dennis Sardella — who had been Presidential Scholars Pro-gram director at the time — said of

Susan Choy, an operations man-agement and marketing major in the Carroll School of Management with an American Studies minor (concen-tration in Asian American Studies), has been an active student leader since her freshman year. The 2011 Dr. Donald Brown Award winner for extraordinary contributions to the greater AHANA community, Choy worked as chief-of-staff of the AHANA Leadership Council, AHANA Caucus co-director, AHANA Caucus representative and vice president of the Southeast Asian Student Association.

An honors student in the Lynch School of Education, Robyn Anto-nucci has been a UGBC senator, peer advisor for the First Year Professional Development Program and co-chair of corporate sponsorship, team develop-ment and the ceremonies committee of BC Relay for Life. Antonucci’s com-bination of service and scholarship in-cluded serving as a research assistant to former LSOE Dean Joseph O’Keefe, SJ, an intern at the American Cancer Society, and a volunteer at the Hogar

Bethel Orphanage in Argentina and the Jackson-Mann School in Boston.

Scott Landay, a CSOM finance major with a philosophy minor, has worked with the PULSE program for four years, volunteered at the Pine Street Inn, was director of Eagle Ops and is a Portico standout. Landay cites his experience at PULSE and the PULSE Council as “something I will take with me for the rest of my life.” He will go to work as a consultant at PwC Advisory after volunteering this summer serving the less fortunate in Kenya.

Connell School of Nursing stu-dent Molly Rosenwasser’s leadership is colored by a desire to support and appreciate cultural awareness. A mem-ber of the Jenks Leadership Program, 4-Boston, participant in the Appala-chia service trip, volunteer at a com-munity hospital in Grahamstown, South Africa and Haiti, and mentor for the Keys to Inclusive Leadership in Nursing Program, Rosenwasser strives to better the global community.

the conference: “It was, in my opin-ion, a major international project of stunning vision, dwarfing anything I have seen from a BC student in my nearly 44 years here.”

Ratz’s other BC activities in-cluded writing for The Heights, serv-ing as an Office of Undergraduate Admission tour guide and student employee in the Bapst Art Library, interning at the Massachusetts State House and coordinating campus panel discussions “Reclaiming Poli-tics as Service” and “The Obama Administration and the Future of Nuclear Arms Control.”

Ratz plans on attending Har-vard’s Kennedy School in the fall to pursue a master’s in public policy. Beyond that, he remains open to many possibilities.

“Who knows where I will end up after graduate school,” he laughed. “I can say that at the heart of what I will be doing is service and social justice. It’s the kind of values BC has instilled in me and it’s the kind of values that I hope will be at the heart of everything I do for the rest of my life.”

Contact Melissa Beecher at [email protected]

OTHER 2011 FINNEGAN AWARD FINALISTS

This year’s Finnegan Award can-didates were, in photo at left, (L-R) Robyn Antonucci, winner Leon Ratz, Susan Choy and Scott Landay, and above, Molly Rosenwasser. (Photos by Caitlin Cunningham)


Finnegan Award Winner

“I was looking for a university that would bring social justice to the front of its mission

and Boston College does that.”

—Leon Ratz

Boston College has been served a subpoena by the US Attorney’s Office on behalf of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) request-ing two tapes that were recorded as part of the University’s Oral History Archive on the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The oral history project, which was directed by author and former Irish Times journalist Ed Moloney, and overseen by Executive Direc-tor of Irish Programs and Univer-sity Professor of History Thomas E. Hachey and Burns Librarian Robert K. O’Neill, contains dozens of per-sonal accounts from individuals on both sides of the violent struggle that engulfed Northern Ireland be-tween 1970 and 1998, including former members of the Irish Re-publican Army (IRA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The sub-

poena requests tapes of recordings of former IRA members Brendan Hughes, who died in 2008, and Do-lours Price, who were interviewed for the project by republican Anthony McIntyre under the assurances of confidentiality. Tapes of conversa-tions with former UVF members in Northern Ireland recorded by loyalist Wilson McArthur were not requested in the subpoena.

“Boston College is reviewing the subpoena from the US Attorney’s Office and is requesting additional information in light of the ramifica-tions it poses regarding the safety of those involved, the impact on oral history projects, and the effect on the peace process in Northern Ireland,” said University Spokesman Jack Dunn.

“As an international leader in Irish programs and a trusted broker by all

sides in the Northern Irish peace process, our sole intention with this project has been to help preserve the testimony of the participants and to promote peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland,” he said.

Boston College has played a long-standing role in the Northern Ireland peace process. Faculty member and theologian Raymond Helmick, SJ, has served as a mediator in the con-flict negotiations, Political Science Professor Marc Landy instructed members of the fledgling Northern Irish Assembly on power sharing, BC faculty have offered courses on peace and conflict resolution studies at uni-versities in Northern Ireland, and former Alumni Association Director Kathleen O’Toole, a 1976 graduate, served on the Patten Commission that oversaw the reform of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, which had long

been criticized for its treatment of Ulster’s minority Catholic popula-tion. Most recently, Boston College was chosen as the repository for the archive of Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, which oversaw the disarming of the Irish Republican Army and other paramilitary groups in Northern Ire-land.

In addition, since 1997, the Uni-versity’s Irish Institute, with the sup-port of the US State Department, has sponsored programs that bring together professionals from govern-ment, education, non-profits and business from both the Republic and Northern Ireland, to promote peace and reconciliation by advocating cross-border and cross-community cooperation.

Since 2000, the Center for Irish Programs has served as the organiza-

tional umbrella for the University’s Irish initiatives and resources, includ-ing the Irish Studies Program, the Irish Institute and the Dublin-based Centre for Irish Programmes facility on St. Stephen’s Green.

Dunn said the common thread throughout all of these programs has been to promote peace on an island whose history is inextricably linked to that of Boston College and the United States. “Our overriding concern regarding the subpoena is the threat the release of the tapes may pose in derailing the peace initiatives that we as a University have long supported and helped to achieve,” he said. “So we will consider all our legal options as we determine who best to address the subpoena in weeks to come.”

—Office of News & Public Affairs

Archive on Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ Faces Federal Subpoena

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Boston College students have traveled across the globe, from Mt. Kilimanjaro to Chile and from Haiti to Israel, over the past year to document social justice is-sues under the aegis of the Jacques Salmanowitz Program for Moral Courage in Film, which marked its 10th anniversary at BC this spring.

All 12 of this year’s Salmanow-itz films were screened at last month’s Arts Festival before a standing room-only crowd. Among the films shown were “Porters on the Stone of God,” an investigative look at the work-ing conditions of the porters who assist guide groups climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. The porters, who make six US dollars a day, often are forced to climb with shoddy equipment and have their tips stolen by their guides, according to the film’s co-producers, senior political science major Benjamin Key ’11 (writer/director) and film studies and communication major Chris Battaglia ’11 (cameraman and editor).

“The system is corrupt from the top down in many cases,

said Key. “But there are ethical companies, and there are organi-zations — most significantly the Kilimanjaro Assistance Project — who are helping. We wanted to get the word out about this issue, because really, it’s in the hands of the tourists. An Ameri-can, for example, who wants to climb, should simply climb with an ethical company – and the film explains how to figure that out — and they should tip their porters directly. Those two simple things make all the difference.”

Seniors Brianna LeRose, a 2011 Arts Council award winner, and Elizabeth Rodriguez went to the US-Mexican border in Ari-zona to document the story of female immigrants for their film “The Other Side of the Fence.”

“We were shocked about how serious anti-immigration policies are in Arizona. We had no idea how extreme they were, and how severely they are impacting many people’s lives, immigrants or not,” said LeRose, a film studies ma-jor and an international studies minor. “We wanted to show the perspective of some immigrant women themselves. Through my Salmanowitz project, I’ve become educated and very passionate

about immigration policy.” Launched in March 2001, the

Jacques Salmanowitz Program for Moral Courage in Film aims to encourage the production of social justice films focused on issues of human rights, civic concerns and acts of moral courage, providing role models for youth worldwide. Directed by Fine Arts Profes-sor and documentary filmmaker John Michalczyk, the program — named for a Swiss businessman who helped individuals escape Nazi Germany in World War II — is funded via a renewable grant from the Jacques Salmanowitz

Dennis Cheng ’12 has been awarded a Richards-Norris Summer Research Scholarship to support research in the Boston College Merkert Chemistry Center.

Cheng, a Newton native, will study the development of enan-tioenriched scaffolding ligands — ions or molecules that bind to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex — for the asymmetric hydroformylation of homoallylic alcohols that would favor the formation of the branched aldehyde in high enantiomeric excess. He will investigate structure activity relationship for both the selectivity and reactivity of the ligands.

The project also will involve a publication of his research findings in the Northeast Sector of American Chemical Society’s journal The Nucleus, and a poster presentation at the Northeast Student Chem-istry Research Conference next April.

“This project is meaningful to me is a couple of ways,” said Cheng. “Academically, it will serve as the starting point of my senior thesis, which will be an intellectual synthesis of what I have learned in my four years at BC. Professionally, this project and the fellow-ship will allow me to have the chance to publish in a journal and enable me to exchange and see what other chemistry students in different colleges are researching.”

Following graduation next spring, Cheng plans to work in bio-medical research and apply for medical school.

—Ed Hayward

BY MELISSA BEECHER STAFF WRITER

James Chon Ieng Law, an exchange student from the Honours College at University of Macau, China, said he was startled the first time he wit-nessed a student at Boston Col-lege challenge a statement made by a professor.

“I was shocked. In our cul-ture, it is considered very dis-respectful to do such a thing,” said Law. “I was shocked even more when the professor an-swered and the class became more of a debate. It’s been one of the big differences, and is one of the reasons I have en-joyed the teachers in America.”

Law and sev-en other Macau students have made up the first class in a Bos-ton College-University of Ma-cau Honors Exchange Program. The program will take place each spring semester, with 10 Macau students expected next year. As the program grows, ad-

ministrators say, students from BC will study at Macau.

Vice Provost for Under-graduate Academic Affairs and Professor of Political Science Donald Hafner said the new program allows honors students both in China and at BC to engage in a meaningful cross-cultural exchange.

“Forty percent of our stu-dents study abroad. It is useful for students headed out into the world to have exposure to inter-

national students in classroom set-tings. When they return, seeing in-ternational peers here studying alongside them is a reminder that we live in a larger, global communi-ty,” said Hafner.

“Having the Macau Honours College students

here broadly benefits the full-ness of what it means to experi-ence a BC education,” Hafner said.

The University of Macau was established in 1981 as the Uni-versity of East Asia, just outside of Hong Kong. It is currently

the largest university in Macau, with 7,000 students and 400 teaching staff members. Hafner said the partnership began when the Dean of Macau Honours College, Professor K. M. Mok, contacted Boston College look-ing to form a relationship with an institution boasting a strong liberal arts program.

The Macau students arrived in January and studied along-side BC honors students in a variety of courses.

Law, who took courses at the Carroll School of Management, said he especially enjoyed his organizational behavior class. Outside the classroom, he ex-plored Boston, New York City and Disneyland, and plans on traveling to Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco before re-turning home this summer.

“I learned about different cultures and learned how to build relationships and make friends. Even though we come from very different educational systems, I was able to make rela-tionships here and look forward to seeing them again when they travel to Macau,” said Law.

Contact Melissa Beecher at [email protected]

family in Switzerland under the aegis of the Foundation for Moral Courage (formerly Documenta-ries International Film and Video Foundation) of Washington, DC.

The Salmanowitz Program helps student filmmakers by fund-ing travel and living expenses, loaning camera equipment, and through mentoring and work-shops.

Past Salmanowitz student film projects have examined revolution in Bolivia, racism in Australia, the construction of a mosque in Boston, AIDS in South Africa, the disabled in Uganda, and the life

of Nazi resistance leader Sophie Scholl, among other topics.

Michalczyk, who chairs Fine Arts and co-directs the Film Stud-ies Program with Fine Arts Profes-sor Rev. Richard Blake, SJ, noted that students’ projects have grown more ambitious over the years. “BC is opening students’ minds to global issues, global plights and you see this influence in their film projects. The students’ technical skills are more advanced and the result is a more professional fin-ished project.”


Opening Minds to the World, One Film at a TimeFor 10 years, BC’s Jacques Salmanowitz program has encouraged and inspired student filmmakers with interest in social justice and global issues

Fine Arts Professor John Michalczyk, left, director of the Jacques Salmanowitz Program for Moral Courage in Film, talks with Benjamin Key ’11 during a recent campus screening of films produced through the program, including Key’s.

Exchange with Chinese University Begins

“Having the Macau

Honours College stu-

dents here broadly ben-

efits the fullness of what

it means to experience a

BC education.”

—Donald Hafner

Dennis Cheng ’12. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

Junior Wins Chemistry Scholarship

The BosTon College


NAMES: Peter and Rita OlivieriYEARS AT BC: 42 (Peter), 33 (Rita)POSITIONS: Associate Professor for Information Systems, Carroll School of Management (Peter), Associate Professor for Adult Health Nursing, Connell School of Nursing (Rita)

Peter: “My favorite memory at BC is the day I received a call from a Kathy Nash, asking if she could bring her 11-year-old son to my lab. She had heard about the EagleEyes system that Professor Jim Gips and I invented that allows you to move the cursor on the computer screen using your eyes. Her son, Mi-chael, was paralyzed from the neck down with cerebral palsy and he was diagnosed as having the mentality of a three year old. She did not believe it.

“We set Michael up with the EagleEyes system and put two buttons on the computer screen. One indicated YES, the other NO. Michael, to everyone’s amazement, slowly moved his eyes to the right buttons and started correctly answering questions about things his family had talked about over the last 11 years. A quite bright mind was liberated from a body that refused to function. I still get chills recalling that special day. By the way, Michael graduated with his class from high school.”

Rita: “The awesome part of teaching in the clinical setting was that I was able to share in the students’ excitement of ‘experiencing and con-necting with the nursing role.’ This happens in different ways and at different times during the course of the semester. Sometimes it was the connection that they had with a special patient, sometimes it was the caring and empathy that they showed for a patient in a complex and dif-ficult medical situation, and sometimes it was simply their high level of motivation to learn the clinical reasoning necessary to be a nurse. The lasting memory for me is the joy of observing the transformation from BC student to BC nursing student.”

Administrators, faculty and staff who have retired or are marking 25 years of service to Boston College will be honored June 1 at a spe-cial dinner to be hosted by University President William P. Leahy, SJ.

Retiring this year are Joseph Appleyard, SJ, Michael Callnan, Ruth Chobit, Mary Lou Connelly, Esther Duray, Celeste Finison, Judith Kissane, Thomas Owens, Catherine Toran, Barbara Viechnicki, Harvey Egan, SJ, Walter Haney, G. Ramsay Liem, Ritchie Lowry, Charles Meyer, Sandra Mott, C. Peter Olivieri, Rita Olivieri, John Steczynski and Judith Wilt.

Twenty-five year administrators, faculty and staff are Jenny Ba-glivo, Frances Bates, Janet Bates, Giovanni Buonopane, James Cle-ments, Jeffrey Cohen, Stephanie Coleman, David Corkum, Mary Crane, James Cronin, Mary Cronin, Mary Devlin, June Dunkley, Margery Ferry, Samuel Graves, Robert Gross, Stuart Hecht, Fr. Robert Imbelli, Richard Jefferson, Carolyn Jupiter-McIntosh, Mary Keane, Paul Kerrigan, Jose Martinez, Francisco Martins, Christopher Matthews, Joana Maynard, Joanne McAulay, James McInnis, Gil Miranda, Michael Mitsukawa, Elizabeth Napolitano, Rita Nicholson, Marcela Norton.

Also marking 25 years are Cidalia Pereira, James Repetti, Elizabeth Rhodes, Janet Ringuest, Jeffrey Ringuest, John Sachs, Kevin Saffo, Kenneth Schwartz, Laurie Shepard, Robert Sherwood, Luisa Sical, Sergio Sical, Laurie Simard, Howard Singer, Carlos Sousa, Mark Sul-livan, Lisa Taddeo, Albert Travaglini, Victoria Varno, Sandra Wad-dock, Gerald Wall, Scott Washburn and Lamar Wright.


NAME: G. Ramsay LiemYEARS AT BC: 40POSITION: Professor of Psy-chology, College of Arts and Sci-ences

“It’s difficult to imagine leaving Boston College after so many years. Much has changed since I came to be part of an innovative gradu-ate program applying psychological theory, research, and practice to issues of social and racial inequal-ity. But the university ethos of edu-cation for social justice and service to others has always attracted facul-ty, graduate students, undergradu-ates, and administrators and staff with whom it has been my fortune to collaborate and I am grateful for their colleagueship. I look forward to continuing many of these rela-tionships through part-time teach-ing in the Psychology Department

and the Asian American Studies Program, and joining the Center for Human Rights and International Justice as a visiting fellow.”

NAME: Ritchie P. LowryYEARS AT BC: 45 POSITION: Professor of Sociol-ogy, College of Arts and Sciences

“I’ll miss teaching and interac-tion with the students. I can still read, do research, write, and attend meetings, but I will not have the opportunity to experience the views and perspectives of different gen-erations of young people. Teaching is also a matter of learning from your students. I have loved teach-ing for other reasons as well. At my age (85) I have experienced and lived through World War II, the Cold War, McCarthyism, the Civil Rights Movement, opposition to the Vietnam War, and much more. I have been able to share these experiences with my students and use social theory and perspectives to help them understand what hap-pened and the implications for cur-rent society. BC students are gener-ally among the most committed to social and economic justice issues, and they have responded very well to the ideas I have shared with them. I will miss them both on the graduate and undergraduate level.”

NAME: John CawthorneYEARS AT BC: 23 POSITION: Associate Dean for Undergraduate Student Services, Lynch School of Education

“I will miss watching the stu-dents grow into mature and re-sponsible young women and men. My favorite memory is the 14-year partnership with the Holy Family School in Natchez, Miss., and the

relationship that has developed be-tween the Lynch School and Holy Family.”

NAME: Walt HaneyYEARS AT BC: 29POSITION: Professor, Depart-ment of Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation, Lynch School of Education

“I will miss the people, the won-derful, wonderful people. Working with talented and eager graduate students. There are many I could-name, but mention now just one: Cengiz Gulek. He was brilliant, incredibly hard working and funny. Even as he was dying, he reached out to tease me.” [Editor’s Note: Cengiz (James) Gulek PhD ’99 died of cancer in January of 2010 at age 41.]

NAME: Judith WiltYEARS AT BC: 33POSITION: Newton College Alumnae Professor in Western Culture, English Department, College of Arts and Sciences

“I’m still working with five PhD students who are doing exams or writing dissertations, and I hope to teach one course a year in the English department for a few more years, since I’d like to be connected with the University during its 150th year anniversary celebration. But I will miss that day to day sense of involvement in the lives of scores of new young people every year, and especially the sense I developed over the past 33 years of being to a degree responsible for and a par-ticipant in the development of a grand institution with a profoundly important history.”

PARTING THOUGHTSREFLECTIONS FROM 2011 RETIREES

NAME: Harvey Egan, SJYEARS AT BC: 36POSITION: Professor of Theology, College of Arts and Sciences

“I have good memories of the quality of my undergraduate and graduate students. A spe-cial gift to Jesuits (and to their universities) is the opportunity not only to teach students, but also to be of priestly service to them: their marriages, baptisms, anointing of the sick, and the like --to be involved not only in their academic life but also in their spiritual-liturgical lives.”

NAME: Mary Lou ConnellyYEARS AT BC: 37POSITION: Secretary to Uni-versity Vice President William B. Neenan, SJ, for last 30 years

“I’ve had some interesting conver-sations with faculty over the years, and met some fascinating people through Fr. Neenan. I’ve also gotten some good reading suggestions through Fr. Neenan’s ‘Dean’s List’ [his annual list of recommended books]; my favorite was Kristin Lavransdatter, which I probably never would have thought to read if not for his recommenda-tion. Fortunately, my granddaughter will be coming to BC this fall as a freshman, so I’ll still be around.”

Olivieris By the Numbers Combined totals for Peter and

Rita Olivieri, their three children and their children’s spouses

Years working at BC: 120 yearsYears as students at BC: 33Total time family associated with BC: 153 yearsNumber of BC degrees: 12

Retirees, 25-Year Employees to Be Honored on June 1

Photos by Lee Pellegrini

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BY REID OSLIN STAFF WRITER

Several members of the Boston College community are lending their support – and their skills – to a Massachusetts organization that provides higher education opportunities for the children of military service members from the Bay State who have lost their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Thomas Jennings ’95 is a trustee of Massa-chusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund, a Boston-based group founded in 2004 to provide education-focused assistance grants for the sons and daughters of the state’s fallen heroes.

There are cur-rently 71 children of deceased military members eligible for the financial assistance – sev-eral of them approaching college age.

Jennings has enlisted the as-sistance of the University’s Direc-tor of Undergraduate Admission, John L. Mahoney Jr., to provide knowledge and perspective for the children and their families. “Tom and I have been talking about this for more than a year now,” says Mahoney, “and he has mentioned that the fund is grow-ing and the children are closer to the age when they are beginning to look at college.

“Since our initial conversa-tion, I have been struck by what a wonderful project this is,” says Mahoney. “My response was ‘Count me in.’”

Mahoney has offered to meet with families to talk about the college admission process in gen-

eral, and how students should prepare for college – especially se-lective schools – as well as finan-cial aid information that could be helpful in addition to any type of MSLF grant that is available.

Mahoney has also contacted his professional counterparts at Harvard University, Boston University, Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts, and received equally enthusiastic promises of educational guidance

and consideration for the children of deceased military members.

“These children will be coming though the admis-sions pipeline in the next few years to come,” says Ma-honey. “This group has laid the founda-tion for them. Even if we don’t get some of those kids to

come to BC, there is definitely a role we can play for them.”

Jennings, who graduated from BC with degrees in economics and theology, said in an e-mail that although he never served in the military himself, he has “a deep appreciation for the free-dom that we enjoy as Ameri-cans.”

The Legacy Fund organiza-tion held a leadership fundraising breakfast at Boston’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel this past Wednes-day with a goal of adding $1 million to the program’s coffers. University Trustee John Fish was a co-chair of the event.

For more information on the Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund, see http://www.mslfund.org

Contact Reid Oslin at [email protected]

Boston College graduates who have served in the military are invited to participate in a new Reunion Weekend program for veterans to be held June 4 at 11 a.m. on Bapst Library lawn.

The event will include welcoming remarks from University Chancellor J. Donald Monan, SJ; a remembrance and reading of the citation for Army Capt. Joseph X. Grant ’61, the Univer-sity’s only Medal of Honor recipient; an update on BC’s Army ROTC program by Lt. Col. Gary M. Soldato; and a viewing and reflection at the campus Veterans’ Memorial wall.

The event is open to all reunion and non-reunion year veter-ans and their families and friends.

Registration for the veterans’ event is available at http://bit.ly/iHlmD8.

—Reid Oslin

BY ED HAYWARD STAFF WRITER

To supporters of efforts to convert government functions into private-sector enterprises, privatization is synonymous with efficiency and market competition.

To detractors, privatization can instead result in fraud, cro-nyism and waste.

In his new book, Privatize This, Adjunct Associate Profes-sor of Economics Richard A. McGowan, SJ, takes a look at the gush of privatization that emerged from the Bush ad-ministration between 2001 and 2008 and tries to determine if American taxpayers, and con-sumers, were well-served by the efforts.

In Fr. McGowan’s eyes, the question is whether using tax-payer dollars to engage private companies is always more ef-fective and less expensive than allowing government agencies to provide the services?

“One of the things that has always interested me is when government gets into an indus-try and when government gets out of one,” says Fr. McGowan, a renowned expert on the “sin” industries of alcohol, cigarettes and gambling and the author of six prior books. “Quite often, what we see are governments under extreme financial stress. When you privatize an enter-prise, government gets an im-mediate payment and then it can tax the revenue derived from that enterprise under private manage-

ment.”To determine whether these

efforts to privatize are more about private profit or the public good, Fr. McGowan cites a range of enterprises at the heart of the privatization debate: state-run lot-teries and liquor stores, European regulation of cigarette sales, mili-tary contractors, government-run

casinos, privately-run interstate turnpikes and toll roads, even an experiment in privatized parking meters in Chicago.

These examples are judged against the tests of whether or not enterprises are run more efficient-ly in private hands, or whether or not privatization infringes on the equal distribution of goods and services previously made available to all through government.

“We constantly have a bat-tle between making things effi-cient and making things equi-table and within reach,” says Fr. McGowan, who teaches in the Carroll School of Management. “You can’t just put something to a financial test. Just because something is efficient, if people can’t use it, then how does that serve the public good?”

While nations around the world have divergent approaches to privatization, Fr. McGowan says the primary sticking point in the US is a cultural and political resistance to government’s role in the marketplace.

“We put such a stress on in-dividual liberty,” says Fr. Mc-Gowan. “We always want to be entrepreneurial and government is seen as being anti-entrepre-neurial, as stifling entrepreneur-ship. Our instinct is the less the amount of government, the bet-

ter, so let’s get government out of the market.”

In reality, the public’s well-being may be best protected by government either as a provider of services or as a regulatory au-thority.

“Regulation is not a dirty word,” says Fr. McGowan. “You are going to have to regulate some types of industries and, in some cases, highly regulate them. You may want to keep government out, but clearly they are going to have to regulate certain indus-tries.”

Contact Ed Hayward at [email protected]

Regulation No ‘Dirty Word’New book by Fr. McGowan weighs the benefits of privatization

“You can’t just put something

to a financial test. Just because

something is efficient, if people

can’t use it, then how does that

serve the public good?”

—Richard McGowan, SJ

“The Discovery Ducks” — youngsters from the Boston College Child Care Center — received a tour of the Stokes Hall construction site earlier this month from Facilities Management. For an update on the Stokes project and other campus con-struction, see page 3. To see more photos, see http://bit.ly/jz9SQp (Photo courtesy of Mary Nardone, Facilities Management)

CLOSE INSPECTION

2011 Reunion Weekend to Include Program for Veterans

BC Lends Helping Hand to Soldiers Legacy Fund

“Even if we don’t get

some of those kids to

come to BC, there is

definitely a role we can

play for them.”

—John Mahoney Jr.

Photo by Lee Pellegrini

The BosTon College


JOB LISTINGS

BC BRIEFING

NEWSMAKERSAsst. Prof. Dominic Papineau (Earth and Environmental Sci-ences) and colleagues published an article in Nature Geoscience about their research, which re-veals tell-tale carbon deposits laced throughout ancient rock may actually be millions of years younger than the rock itself, rais-ing questions about the timing of life’s early emergence.

BC-Ireland Academic Director Mike Cronin provided commen-tary for the BBC during the his-toric visit to the Republic of Ire-land of Queen Elizabeth II, who also was presented with a copy of The GAA: A People’s History, a book on the Gaelic Athletic As-sociation co-authored by Cronin.

Lynch School of Education Mo-nan Professor Philip Altbach, director of the Center for Inter-national Higher Education, wrote in Times Higher Education about the challenges facing Saudi Arabia’s ambitious plans for higher education.

Bloomberg Business Week in-cluded 2007 graduates and for-mer Presidential Scholars Rich Aberman and Bill Clerico — founders of online money collec-tion startup WePay — among its list of the best young tech entre-preneurs of 2011.

University Historian Thomas O’Connor wrote in The Pilot about the public’s changed per-ceptions of Irish Catholics — labeled by the “Know-Nothing” legislature of Massachusetts as a lawless and violent people — for their courage and gallantry in defending Fort Sumter against attack.

Center for Financial Literacy Director Steven Sass was inter-viewed by the Seattle Times for an article on the consequences of late-career layoffs.

The Worcester Telegram and Ga-zette ran a profile of Assoc. Prof. Rachel Freudenburg, (German Studies) and her documentary “FREYA!” that was screened at Worcester’s Hibernian Cultural Center.

PUBLICATIONS Gasson Professor of Fine Arts Andrea Vicini, SJ, published “Living with Indigenous Com-

munities in Chiapas, Mexico: The Transformative Power of Poverty and Suffering” in Ethnography as Christian Theology and Ethics, and “Per una lettura teologico-morale nella malattia: fragilità e vulnerabilità (A Theological Reflection on Illness: Fragility and Vulnerability),”� in Rivista di Teologia Morale. In addition, Fr. Vicini and Founders Professor of Theology James Keenan, SJ, published, “O futuro da Bioética” (“The Future of Bioethics”) in the Brazilian journal Bioethikos.

HONORS/ APPOINTMENTSAdj. Assoc. Prof. Michael C. Keith (Communication) has been selected as July’s Connota-tion Press “Writer of the Month” for his short story, “iDead.”

TIME AND A HALF

Prof. Richard Schrader (English) gave a talk on medieval allegory to the Ministerial Fellowship at Copeland Oaks in Sebring, Ohio.

Economics faculty made the fol-lowing presentations:•Roche Professor of Econom-ics Arthur Lewbel, “Regression Discontinuity Marginal Thresh-old Treatment Effects,” and Asst. Prof. Mathis Wagner (Econom-ics), “The Heterogeneous Labor Market Effects of Immigration,” Royal Economic Society Annual Conference, University of Lon-don. Lewbel also chaired a session at the conference. •Asst. Prof. Georg Strasser, “Why Do Certain Macroeconomic News Announcements Have a Big Impact on Asset Prices,” HUKU Copenhagen Conference. He also

chaired a session and was a discussant at the Campus for Finance-Research Con-ference 2011 at WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Manage-ment in Germany.

•Professors Susanto Basu and Peter Gottschalk and graduate student Alessandro Barattieri, “Some Evidence on the Impor-tance of Sticky Wages,” 16th An-nual Meetings of the Society of Labor Economics in Vancouver, Canada.

The following are among the most recent positions posted by the De-partment of Human Resources. For more information on employment opportunities at Boston College, see http://www.bc.edu/offices/hr:

Locksmith, Facilities Management

Housing Assignments Specialist, Residential Life

Associate Vice President, Residen-tial Life

Associate Director, Classes & Re-unions, Law School - Alumni and Development

Associate Dean, Finance and Ad-ministration, College of Arts & Sciences

Senior Machinist, Scientific In-strmnt & Mchn Svs

Sr. Scientific Electronics Specialist, Scientific Instrmnt & Mchn Svs

Teacher Assistant, Lynch School of Education - Campus School

Special Education Teacher, Lynch School of Education - Campus School

Systems Administrator, Office of International Students and Schol-ars

Writer/Editor, Trends in Math-ematics & Science Study

Sr. Assoc, Assoc, Asst. Director Corporate & Foundation Rela-tions

Associate Director, Online Com-munications & Marketing, Devel-opment

Resident In Athletic Training, Ath-letic Association - Sports Medicine

A funeral Mass was celebrated May 13 at Saint Elizabeth Church in Milton for retired Carroll School of Management Professor John Van Tassel, who died May 8 after a long illness. He was 85.

Dr. Van Tassel taught in CSOM for 48 years — mainly in the Operations and Strategic Management Department — and also served as associate dean from 1960-63 and associate dean and director from 1963-69.

Colleagues praised Dr. Van Tassel as an early advocate for computers in management education who was instrumental in their installation and use at Boston College. Galligan Professor of Strategy Sandra Waddock described him as “a pioneer” for developing a computer-based simulation that placed students in decision-marking roles as company managers.

Dr. Van Tassel retired in 2003 and was an officer in the Boston College Association of Retired Faculty.

A Natick native, US Army veteran and model train enthusiast, Dr. Van Tassel graduated from Boston College High School and earned bachelor’s and master’s degree from Boston College, as well as a doctorate from Harvard University.

He is survived by his wife, Joan, and his sister, Barbara Enago-nio; he was pre-deceased by his sister Elisabeth. Burial took place at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.


Competition is close among Boston College alumni classes to be among the first four groups of graduates to reach participation goals in University Advancement’s “Race to the Finish Challenge” and earn the honor of having a $100,000 scholarship named in honor of their class.

The challenge campaign, which has at least a dozen classes vying for the top four slots before the end of BC’s fiscal year on May 31, is aimed at boosting both alumni participation as well as supporting the Univer-sity’s on-going $1.6 billion “Light the World” campaign.

“Boston College undergraduate alumni really identify themselves with their graduating class,” says Director of Classes, Annual Giving Deborah Ianno. “There is a great dose of really healthy competition among the classes. The ‘Race to the Finish’ is all participation-based, which is one of the pillars of our campaign. It is going very well.”

At press time, the Class of 1957 was in the lead for the scholarship naming honor with a 90 percent-of-goal participation rate. However, Advancement administrators say that a number of other classes are in the running for the scholarship naming rights as the fiscal year deadline approaches.

“One of the nice things about having a participation goal is that ev-eryone counts equally – no matter the amount of the gift that they are making,” notes Ianno. “Any gift counts toward the class goal.”

The “Race to the Finish” class competition is the latest challenge or scholarship-naming incentive organized by University Advancement in recent years. “We started with the Father Neenan Challenge in 2009,” says Ianno, referring to the participation-based campaign inaugurated in honor of BC’s beloved Jesuit academician and administrator. “Last year, we had an Alumni Participation Challenge that included 26,840 alumni donors – an increase over the first year, and we had a GOLD [Graduates Of Last Decade] Challenge last fall that saw an increase of 21 percent – more than 500 new donors – over the previous year.”

The current “Race to the Finish” campaign was launched in Janu-ary and Ianno hopes it will wind up with a flourish. “May is always an exciting time for BC and for the work that we do. We are hoping for an exciting finish.”

—Reid Oslin

Carroll School of Management Associate Professor Hassell Mc-Clellan has been appointed to the US Small Business Administra-tion’s Council on Underserved Communities (CUC).

McClellan, who teaches in the Operations and Strategic Manage-ment Department, has previously worked in corporate banking with Harris Trust in Chicago and as a faculty member at the Harvard Business School. McClellan’s spe-cialties include strategic manage-ment and global competitiveness. He is the author of several case studies, as well as a book on the banking industry, Managing One-bank Holding Companies.

Building on SBA’s core pro-grams and Recovery initiatives, the CUC will provide input, ad-vice and recommendations on strategies to help strengthen com-petitiveness and sustainability for small businesses in underserved communities. These strategies will be focused on increasing entrepre-neurship and technical assistance, creating new and strengthening existing outreach and training, and raising awareness in under-served communities of SBA pro-grams and services.

The 20-member council is chaired by Catherine Hughes, founder and chairperson of Radio One and TV One, and will have 20 members who represent a di-verse range of backgrounds and geographic areas.

“One of SBA’s core missions is to support small businesses in tra-ditionally underserved communi-ties, including minorities, women, veterans, people with disabilities and in rural areas,” SBA Deputy Administrator Marie Johns said. “The Council on Underserved Communities will provide valu-able insight and advice into how we can ensure that small business-es in these communities through-out the country have access to the tools they need to grow, create jobs and win the future.”

The CUC’s first meeting will be held in July, in Washington, DC. Before the first meeting, members of the CUC will hold listening sessions in their regions to hear from small business own-ers and members of the commu-nity about what they need from the SBA.

The CUC is part of the SBA’s ongoing efforts to expand its reach into underserved communities. While the nation’s economic re-covery is moving forward, that recovery has been uneven, par-ticularly for socially, economically and geographically disadvantaged small business owners. To help SBA better address the challeng-es facing small business owners, the CUC will meet regularly and advise SBA on ways to increase access to capital and promote sus-tainability, growth, and job cre-ation.

—Ed Hayward

OBITUARY

John Van Tassel, 85; Taught at CSOM Almost 50 Years

Final Leg for BC’s ‘Race to the Finish Challenge’

Small Business Admin. Taps CSOM’s McClellan

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The BosTon College


PROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-ship PLANS: To pursue a doctorate in Ger-man studies or religion and politics, seek career opportunities in the international sector of government and eventually teach at the university level. “The ETA Fulbright grant will be an opportunity for me to bring what I’ve learned at Boston College to my students in Germany. A year in Germany will give me the chance to be completely im-mersed in the German culture — without the protective blanket of a study abroad program or the guidance of a home uni-versity. I believe that this year will be one of personal growth and help to guide me in my professional and academic future.”

NAME: Anna KozlowskiHOMETOWN: Ansonia, Conn.DESTINATION: PolandPROJECT: To study and evaluate the efforts of the government of Poland to combat human trafficking as caused by globalization, growing economic dispari-ties and stringent migration laws.PLANS: Law school, concentrating on human rights law. “As the child of Polish immigrants, I’ve always been interested in the Polish lan-guage, culture and history. Although my [BC] thesis is over, I feel as though my research has just begun. I hope to study at the University of Warsaw and slowly form connections that will give me the op-portunity to interview politicians, judges and lawyers on the subject of human traf-ficking legislation and consequent trends. I truly believe that this year of research abroad will give me a greater depth of knowledge and a better perspective on this terrible crime of modern slavery.”

NAME: Theresa LengauerHOMETOWN: Cambridge DESTINATION: GermanyPROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-shipPLANS: Work as elementary school teacher.“Teaching in a German school will offer insight into a different academic setting and the chance to teach on the interna-tional level. It will add to my passion for teaching and my interest in German cul-ture. I can provide the perspective and en-thusiasm of a student teacher, an Ultimate Frisbee player, and an American student.”

NAME: Kelly McCartney HOMETOWN: Ellicott City, Md.DESTINATION: VietnamPROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-ship PLANS: Earn a master’s degree in educa-tion while teaching in an urban school af-ter her return, followed by business school to earn an MBA in non-profit manage-ment. Long-term goal is to combine her

PROJECT: By teaching English to fu-ture teachers, Coreth hopes to learn more about how immigration, ethnic heritage and foreign-language learning is viewed and accepted in another culture. PLANS: Pursue a master’s degree in Latin American studies and public policy with the goal of entering a career in the public or non-profit sector. “Learning a foreign language and living abroad have been two of the highlights of my Boston College career. Receiving the Fulbright is an opportunity to pursue academic studies in an educational and cultural environment completely differ-ent than our own – and I am ecstatic to have received the opportunity. As a student interested in migration studies, Argentina is the perfect place to study the diaspora of Europeans, Africans and Latin Americans in another country.”

NAME: Kelly Dalla Tezza (Alternate)HOMETOWN: BaltimoreDESTINATION: BahrainPROJECT: Conduct analysis of the social and economic factors that have fostered women’s success in Bahraini poli-tics, and examine the prospects for this trend elsewhere in the region.PLANS: Pursue graduate degree in Mid-dle Eastern studies or attend law school; possible future career in foreign service or international organization. NAME: Patrick FeeneyHOMETOWN: Washington, DC DESTINATION: GermanyPROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-ship in a German secondary school. PLANS: Pursue employment opportu-nities in the international and/or educa-tional arenas before possibly obtaining a graduate degree in preparation for a career in the foreign service or in academe. “I am thrilled to travel to Germany as an ambassador for the United States. Boston College, particularly the German [Stud-ies] Department, has equipped me with skills that I am eager to employ as I work with young students next year. Personally, I haven’t been convinced that I want to become a teacher yet, but teaching next year will certainly be an enriching experi-ence and provide many lifelong benefits.”

NAME: Drew Firmender ’10HOMETOWN: Roxbury, Conn.DESTINATION: BrazilPROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-ship at Federal University of Rio De Janeiro.PLANS: Work for a Brazilian-American company.“Fulbright is the realization of serving oth-ers abroad as an American, and opening a discourse which seeks to improve other cultures. I have chosen Brazil because I have a deep affection for the country and its people, and wish to further engage through language and education.”

NAME: Samuel HanHOMETOWN: Irvine, Calif.DESTINATION: South KoreaPROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-shipPLANS: Law school, followed by a career focused on international social justice and human rights “I hope that this blessed experience will expand my knowledge of the Korean culture so that I am well equipped with the language and cultural skills that would allow me to pursue my aspirations of working with Korea on the international level.”

NAME: Katelyn JonesHOMETOWN: St. LouisDESTINATION: Germany

educational experiences for a career in education NGOs. “I feel that the opportunity to pursue an English Teaching Assistantship is the per-fect culmination to my undergraduate ca-reer at BC. It merges my academic interest in linguistics with my volunteer experience in tutoring and gives me the opportunity to travel and experience a new culture. It is also a testament to the remarkable work and influence of [Slavic and Eastern Lan-guages and Literatures] Professor Marga-ret Thomas, the Undergraduate Fulbright Program Director, who piqued my inter-est in the Vietnamese language through her Linguistic Field Methods course. I feel truly blessed to have had her as a mentor throughout my undergraduate career.”

NAME: Emily McCormickHOMETOWN: New Vernon, NJDESTINATION: TaiwanPROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-ship at an elementary school in Kaohsi-ung.PLANS: Work with Jesuit Volunteer Corps, either internationally or in the Northwest Pacific Region, followed by graduate/professional school for interna-tional relations and law. “I am thrilled about the opportunity to teach elementary school children in Tai-wan, to become immersed in Taiwanese culture and to increase my proficiency in Mandarin Chinese. With this experience, I hope to improve cross-cultural relations between the United States and Taiwan.”

NAME: Madeline McSherryHOMETOWN: Red Hook, NYDESTINATION: SpainPROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-ship; explore Spanish arts communities and literary traditions.PLANS: Enroll in master’s degree pro-gram for bilingual education or translation and interpretation. “I feel fortunate and excited to be working for an organization that depends on and promotes cooperation between nations. The Fulbright grant will prepare me to better communicate as both an educa-tor and a translator in this multicultural world.”

NAME: Elizabeth MullerHOMETOWN: Minneapolis DESTINATION: NepalPROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-shipPLANS: Graduate school for a degree in secondary education or community development. “My undergraduate experiences have led me to the firm conclusion that the educa-tion of youth is vital for successful and sustainable community development. As an English teacher, I will use my passion and commitment to education to alert Nepali youth to their potential as com-

munity agents to create a sustainable future.”

NAME: Colin Pow-ers ’08H O M E T O W N : Hastings, NYDESTINATION: Bulgaria PROJECT: English Teaching Assistantship PLANS: Graduate school in international education, internation-al conflict resolution or Middle East Studies. “I applied for an ETA program to improve my skills as an educa-tor, to learn from and interact with a fasci-nating population, to represent our country with dignity, and to conduct independent research in a country

that is dynamically and vibrantly redefin-ing itself.”

NAME: Caitlin RoweHOMETOWN: Watchung, NJDESTINATION: GermanyPROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-ship in North Rhine-Westphalia.PLANS: Undecided “I am excited for the opportunity to give back to one German community by igniting teenage students’ passion for English and the United States. I hope to help elevate my classes’ comprehension of English by teaching them expressions and manners of speaking not found in gram-mar books. It is an honor and a privilege to be embarking on this new journey in the fall, and I hope that upon my return I will have taken away just as much from the program as I have taught inside the classroom. ”

NAME: Natalie Stokes ’06 HOMETOWN: Wrentham, Mass.DESTINATION: United Kingdom PROJECT: Undertake a gender study titled “Sexual Assault Awareness as a Pre-ventative Force.” She will complete a one-year master’s degree program in “Gender, Violence and Conflict” at the University of York.PLANS: Attend medical school in the fall of 2012 and pursue a career focused on combating gender discrimination and inequities in health care, incorporating clinical practice with research. “The focus of my research will be on re-siliency resources for prevention of sexual assault in an adolescent population. I will be working with local resources to estab-lish a hotline and peer support group for survivors of sexual assault. Upon comple-tion of my Fulbright year, I am planning to attend medical school. I am interested in practicing primary care medicine with a focus on women’s health.”

NAME: David Tapia (Alternate)HOMETOWN: North Andover, Mass.DESTINATION: GermanyPROJECT: English Teaching Assistant-shipPLANS: Obtain doctoral degree in politi-cal science through the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University; pursue a career in academia and continue to pursue research that will benefit global society. “I aim to enhance my teaching skills, share my passion for American cinema and immerse myself in the German lan-guage and culture, which will be instru-mental in my graduate research on Euro-pean energy security issues.”

In addition, Fulbrights have been awarded to: Nicholas Courtney ’09, currently working for Teach for America in Hawaii, who will go to South Africa

to study the effects of apartheid on educa-tional achievement and the solutions that are presently being tried; Jerome Veith, a doctoral student in philosophy, who will pursue research at the University of Freiburg in Germany for his dissertation on the philosopher Georg Gadamer; and Lynch School of Education 2011 master’s degree recipient Agatha Wozniak, who will be teaching English in Poland.

Other 2011 fellowship-winning se-niors include:

•Amanda Rothschild, a Rhodes Scholarship finalist who was one of 40 students nationwide selected for the Hertog Political Studies Program, which combines guided study of seminal texts such as the Federalist Papers, Plato’s Re-public and Exodus with focused research and discussion on one of three major issues: Iran, health care and bioethics. The program also includes discussions with master teachers, policy analysts and guest speakers, including Antonin Scalia, William Kristol, Juan Williams, Charles Krauthammer, Michael Barone, Eliot Cohen, Elliott Abrams and William Galston.

•Isabel Protasowicki and Alison O’Connell, who were chosen for the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX), a year-long, federally-funded fellow-ship for study and work in Germany. Through CBYX, the pair will attend a two-month intensive German language course, study at a German university or professional school for four months, and complete a five-month internship with a German company in their career fields. Participants are placed throughout Ger-many and have the opportunity to learn about everyday German life from a vari-ety of perspectives.

•John Maloy, awarded an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship, which rec-ognizes a student’s athletic and academic achievements, as well as campus involve-ment, community service, volunteer ac-tivities and demonstrated leadership. An honors student in the College of Arts and Sciences and an officer of the BC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Maloy is BC Men’s Swimming all-time leader in wins (172) and in points scored (2024.75), and holds six of the Eagles’ individual team records. He will attend Georgetown University Law Center next year.

•Anne Kornahrens, a Presiden-tial Scholar who — after receiving a Goldwater Scholarship and a National Science Foundation grant — became the first BC student to earn a Skaggs-Oxford award for post-graduate study at The Scripps Research Institute and the University of Oxford.


Fulbright Scholarship winners (L-R) Katelyn Jones, Emily McCormick, Sebastian Agredo, Samu-el Han, Kelly McCartney, Theresa Lengauer, Lauren Blodgett, Anna Kozlowski, Elizabeth Muller, Madeline McSherry, Lake Coreth and David Tapia. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

Amanda Rothschild, back; Alison O’Connell, left, and Isabel Protaswicki.

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Fellowship Winners

Boston College Chronicle

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