Global Concerns

BC community supporting earthquake relief

BY ED HAYWARD STAFF WRITER

Campus initiatives are underway across Boston College in support of relief efforts responding to the devastating series of earthquakes in Turkey and northern Syria that have killed at least 51,100 people and displaced or affected more than 30 million others.

For the past two weeks, all Masses on campus have been offered for Turkey and Syria and all collections have been dedicated to relief work in the two countries, said Haub Vice President for Mission and Ministry Jack Butler, S.J. Campus Ministry has also made additional contributions to aid efforts, he added.

Donations will be collected at the doors of Conte Forum tomorrow night at the men’s hockey game against the University of Connecticut and the men’s basketball game on Saturday against Georgia Tech. Fr. Butler said plans are ongoing for a “points drive” where students can transfer dining hall credits to support relief efforts.

Funds will be directed to Catholic Relief Services or Jesuit Refugee Service, he said.

“Being men and women for others we have a responsibility to be in solidarity with people when they are going through difficult times and suffering,” Fr. Butler said. “It’s an important part of the BC family and who we are. The effects of these earthquakes have been devastating, with many thousands dead at this time. It is a horrific situation. People need our prayers, our support, and our resources.”

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Faculty share their perspectives at Ukraine forum

BY PHIL GLOUDEMANS STAFF WRITER

Nearly one year to the day that Russia invaded Ukraine, and on the heels of President Biden’s surprise visit to Kyiv, an interdisciplinary panel of Boston College faculty met at Fulton Hall on February 23 to share their historical, geopolitical, cultural, and religious perspectives on the conflict, frequently characterized as a vicious war of attrition.

The occasion was one that went beyond purely academic analysis, as reflected in a comment from panel organizer Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies Maxim D. Shrayer: “Three of my grandparents were born and raised in Ukrainian lands, and I feel not only an intellectual and professional connection but also a strong personal link to the suffering of Ukraine and her people.”

In addition to Shrayer, panelists included Associate Professor of History Nicole Eaton; Professor Gerald M. Easter, chair of the Political Science Department; and Professor of History Devin O. Pendas. Curt Woolhiser, a lecturer in Russian and Slavic Studies, provided an overview of the war’s history and served as moderator, while Professor of Near Eastern Studies Franck Salameh, chair of the Department of Eastern, Slavic, and German Studies, delivered the introduction.

Easter discussed the geopolitical impli- cations of the Ukraine war, with neither side seeming ready to negotiate as the battle began its second year. “It’s a multidimensional conflict. At one level, it is a fight over Ukrainian nationhood: How is the nation defined, who is in, and who is out. When Russia intervened a year ago, civil war was already underway.”

Another key factor, he said, is Russia’s ambition to be a regional hegemon and maintain influence over non-Russian peoples on its periphery—long part of a Russian-dominated empire, but now independent—and its aversion to NATO’s military buildup on its borders.