An ‘Ideal Fit’ for BAIC

BY PHIL GLOUDEMANS STAFF WRITER

Yvonne McBarnett has come home.

BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR

Vice Provost for Enrollment Management John L. Mahoney, a key architect for Boston College’s unprecedented success in undergraduate admission and enrollment during the past three decades—and one of the nation’s most respected professionals in the field—will retire from the University at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year.

Mahoney, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from BC, returned to his alma mater in 1984 as assistant (later associate) director of undergraduate admission. He was appointed as director of undergraduate admission in 1990; in 2018, he became dean of undergraduate admission and financial aid and later that year was appointed as vice provost for enrollment management.

The University will announce plans for a restructuring of the Undergraduate Admission division at a later date.

During his tenure as director of under-

Not England, where she was born, but the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center (BAIC), where she began her Boston College professional career in December 2002. She spent 14 years ascending from administrative assistant to program administrator before a stint at alumni relations, and seven years as a program manager and director of the Montserrat Coalition in the University Mission and Ministry division.

McBarnett, known to much of the University community as “Ms. Smiley,” won praise upon her recent appointment as BAIC director from Vice President for Student Affairs Shawna Cooper Whitehead, who noted that her leadership, vision, and mentoring skills are meaningful assets that McBarnett brings to the center.

“She has a wealth of experience and a unique ability to connect with people, particularly underrepresented and underserved students,” said Cooper Whitehead. “She is an ideal fit for the BAIC.”

Founded in 1989 and named for the late Catholic nun, teacher, musician, liturgist, and scholar—and the first Black woman to receive an honorary Doctorate in Religion from BC—the BAIC provides support for the University’s undergradu- ate community, with a particular focus on AHANA students and multicultural, multiracial, and Options Through Education (OTE) scholars. The center helps students navigate the challenges of college by offering programs that facilitate student

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The recently released study, a joint effort between BCSSW’s Work Equity Initiative (WEI) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world’s largest human resources association, provides an in-depth look at the impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in United States workplaces.

Using a nationally representative sample of 1,062 organizations, National Study on Workplace Equity researchers reported that one-quarter of the companies have experienced gender bias (28 percent), racial bias (27 percent), or bias against older workers (26 percent) in the past two years. But although 64 percent of the organizations studied view DEI as important or very important, almost the same percentage—62—indicated that little or no resources are prioritized for DEI policies and practices.

According to the WEI leadership team—Assistant Professor Samuel Bradley Jr., Professor Emerita Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, and Faculty Fellow Kathleen Christensen—the national study is designed to examine the root causes of inequities that can be embedded into organizations’ employment systems. The WEI’s long-term goal, say the trio, is to create tools that support employers and practitioners in workplace equity.

Instead of conceptualizing the level of equity as being constant across the workplace, and throughout employees’ tenure

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Each play creates a fictional form which dramatizes a distinctive form of reconciliation. Shakespeare thus provides an important model for modern dialogue which negotiates religious differences without denying them.

–prof emeritus dennis taylor (english), page 7