33 minute read
Forum on Racial Justice
National Advisory Board Is Envisioned for Forum
BY JACK DUNN
ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
The co-directors of the Forum on Racial Justice in America said they are focused on creating a national advisory board, consisting of individuals who can help Boston College identify specific issues of racial justice and reconciliation that the University and its faculty are uniquely positioned to address, with the goal of making Boston College a leading voice in the national discourse on race.
Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Dean Gregory Kalscheur, S.J., and Vice President Joy Moore, who assumed leadership of the forum in September from former BC Law School Dean Vince Rougeau, said that they are recruiting a diverse group of individuals who are leaders in higher education, business, law, criminal justice, and advocacy to identify issues of national importance that Boston College—through its mission and intellectual resources—can study and address in effective ways.
“Faculty colleagues from across BC’s schools and departments possess a wealth of expertise related to race, racism, racial justice, and reconciliation,” said Fr. Kalscheur. “In concert with the national advisory board, we look forward to working with them to develop scholarly programming that will promote depth of thought and creative approaches to addressing the critical issues facing our nation, as we strive to build equitable and inclusive communities in which all people can flourish.”
“We hope a national advisory board will guide us as to what are the most pressing concerns regarding racial injustice on a national level, to which we should be directing our energy and offering our help,” said Moore. “BC has many resources, including the expertise of its faculty and the wide range and depth of their scholarship. Highlighting the work of faculty within the forum will help expand our knowledge, and broaden our viewpoints and perspectives.”
The Forum on Racial Justice in America was established in 2020 by University President William P. Leahy, S.J., as a Universitywide initiative to provide a meeting place for listening, dialogue, and greater understanding about race and racism in America.
Since being named co-directors, Fr. Kalscheur and Moore said, they have been focused on the forum’s two key objectives: providing a meeting place for listening, dialogue, and greater understanding about race and racism—especially ideas for dealing with current challenges and planning for a better future; and serving as a catalyst for bridging differences regarding race in America, promoting reconciliation, and encouraging fresh perspectives.
Both said they would work closely with Fr. Leahy and senior leadership of Boston College, as well as its national board of advisors, to achieve the forum’s objectives.
The co-directors said that as they work on constructing the national advisory board, they are also discussing ideas for a forum event either in the spring or fall.
“We are committed to promoting racial justice through the important work of this forum,” said Moore. “We look forward to working with our University partners and the national advisory board in the years to come.”
For updates about the Forum on Racial Justice in America, see bc.edu/forum.
Forum on Racial Justice in America co-directors Joy Moore and Gregory Kalscheur, S.J.
photos by lee pellegrini
Philosophy Does Well in Newest QS Rankings
BY LUCAS CARROLL SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Boston College’s philosophy program is the 13th best in the United States and 39th best in the world, according to the recently released QS World University Rankings by Subject. Prepared by British firm Quacquarelli Symonds, QS surveys are considered to be among the most influential providers of international university rankings. QS studied the academic reputation, employer reputation, and research impact of more than 13,000 individual university programs to come up with this year’s rankings of 48 academic disciplines.
The QS citation for Boston College noted its faculty/student ratio of 13:1, a “very high” research output, and an impressive number of citations per faculty member, among other highlights. “I’ve always thought that we were a premier department, so I’m glad that we’ve been recognized as such,” said Joseph Professor of Catholic Philosophy Dermot Moran, chair of the Philosophy Department. “I’m very proud of the Philosophy Department—I think we are doing exceptionally well.”
This academic year, there are 265 philosophy majors at BC, up from 174 in 2018. Philosophy is now the University’s fourth most popular minor, with 198 enrolled. The department includes 36 fulltime and 28 part-time faculty members, as well as 37 active doctoral students and 54 master’s degree students.
Associate Professor of Philosophy Giovanni Pietro Basile believes that an appreciation for philosophy “is something that belongs to the spirit of Jesuit institutions. We care about these questions.”
Boston College, which according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produced the fifth-most philosophy majors of any university nationally over the past decade, is something of an anomaly in its continued prioritization of philosophy and the humanities more broadly. Sixty-six percent of American universities don’t offer philosophy as a major, according to the NCES. This lack of opportunities elsewhere, combined with philosophy’s reputation at BC, has made the University a hotspot for those pursuing careers in the field.
“We had 191 applications for our Ph.D. program this year, and we can choose only five people,” said Basile. “They are all asking to study with us because they can only find what they are looking for at Boston College.”
BC takes a decidedly more multidisciplinary approach to philosophy, according to students and faculty. More than half of the philosophy majors at BC are doubling or tripling with another area of study, for example, and faculty members Patrick Byrne and David Storey traveled to last fall’s COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow to present a humanities-based argument for curbing climate change.
“There is a great deal of diversity in the disciplines to which people are drawn. So, they’re doing philosophy plus economics, or philosophy plus English, or philosophy plus another major,” Moran explained. “And that’s very good, because it enriches our subject, and it also enriches other subjects, as students are able to bring their philosophy acumen with them into every classroom that they’re in.”
“When I started at BC, I had a budding interest in philosophy, but as an accounting major in the Carroll School of Management, I never believed I’d take more than the philosophy requirements all BC students need to take,” said Nick Arozarena, a Carroll School senior double-majoring in philosophy, and editor of Boston College’s undergraduate philosophy journal, Dianoia.
“After having a transformative experience in my freshman year philosophy classes, I was convinced that I should pursue philosophy as a dedicated academic pursuit.”
Lubens Benjamin, a Carroll School junior minoring in philosophy, came to the program through a similar path. “My interest in philosophy was one that I didn’t know I had until coming to Boston College. I found myself fascinated after every class.”
Among those with bachelor’s degrees, the median earnings of philosophy majors exceed those of majors in any other humanities field, according to The Wall Street Journal. A 2014 analysis of data from the Law School Admissions Council by University of Iowa College of Law Professor Derek Muller found that philosophy majors are also the most successful law school applicants among all majors.
“One of the things I often do when students come in to declare a major or minor is ask them: ‘What made you decide to do this?’” said Paula Perry, administrative and undergraduate program assistant for the Philosophy Department. “And it’s always based on a particular class or a particular professor who got them interested in a specific topic, and that’s really nice to see.
“We try to make sure that students know that there are lots of places you can go with a philosophy degree,” she added. “A lot of our students go on to law school or medical school—it’s a good background for a lot of different career paths.”
Lucas Carroll is a senior in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences
Philosophy Chair Dermot Moran hails the multidisciplinary interests of many philosophy majors at BC: “It enriches our subject, and also enriches other subjects.”
photo by lee pellegrini
Lynch School Class Examines Immigration Issues
Continued from page 1 and Roche Center graduate assistant Mike Warner, a M.Div. candidate, the contingent spent a five-day immersion—the crucial element of an el encuentro, or encounter—sandwiched between on-campus meetings that each featured relevant guest speakers.
During their trip to El Paso, the group stayed at the Missionary Society of St. Columban’s Mission Center; met with the U.S. Border Patrol, the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services, and Jesuit Refugee Service; served meals to more than 550 migrants at Sacred Heart Jesuit Parish; and discussed the realities of educating culturally diverse communities with local school administrators, teachers, and parents. In Juarez, they visited shelters and met with religious and lay ministers who have been grappling with the challenges of immigration for decades. “This course provides students with the opportunity to examine the contexts and realities of global and United States immigration through the lens of Catholic teaching and tradition,” said Wyttenbach. “Using Catholic social ethics and the multiple, rich and varied experiences of el encuentro, the class challenges students to critically evaluate their understanding of immigration in light of their roles as educators and administrators in Catholic schools.”
The genesis of the class stems from “Catholic Schools in an Increasingly Hispanic Church,” a report co-published in 2017 by School of Theology and Ministry Associate Professor Hosffman Ospino and Patricia Weitzel-O’Neill, then the Roche Center executive director, based on the first National Survey of Catholic Schools Serving Hispanic Families. Its core question centered on how Catholic schools should respond to demographic changes and the challenge of educating the next generation of American Catholics.
Emanating from that query, the Lynch School launched the one-credit course titled El Encuentro: Immigration and the Catholic Educator’s Response in 2020, designed for elementary and secondary Catholic school educators, as well as for graduate students in theology and education.
Students explore topics such as the history of global and U.S. immigration; the political, economic, and social causes of immigration and the role and response of Catholic schools; the journey of the migrant; ways to make the classroom, pedagogy, and school more culturally responsive; and how to personally address the question of being called to live a life of service as a faith response to justice.
Erin Flanagan M.Ed. ’22, a third-grade teacher at Brighton’s Saint Columbkille Partnership School and a member of the Urban Catholic Teachers Corps 2020-2021 cohort, described her encuentro as “eye opening.”
She explained, “This experience has greatly impacted how I will interact with immigrant individuals and how I will form my teaching pedagogies moving forward. In Juarez, we visited a Catholic school for students with disabilities—an area I’m passionate about and that Mexican public schools tend to not be supportive of—and it showed me a spark of hope, even among all of the challenges we’ve witnessed. I left inspired.”
For Elizabeth Looney M.Ed. ’16, principal at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Mission Grammar School in Roxbury, Mass., her participation in the class and trip was spurred by the desire to inform herself about “a walk of life” that she had not experienced personally.
“As an educator, I make decisions every day that impact students and families, and I recognize that I can’t make informed and equitable decisions if I don’t have information about lived experiences outside of my own,” she said. “People are migrating to the U.S. to escape danger and violence in their home countries but the process of this migration is perpetuating trauma and has been for generations. I need to find ways to support students whose childhood has had elements of this trauma; it’s not fixable but it is supportable.”
Campus Ministry graduate assistant Luis Melgar M.Div. ’23 shared a story of Betty Campbell, an elderly Sister of Mercy he met in Juarez, who has turned her passion toward preserving the names of the countless migrants who have been trafficked, abused, and victimized by the cartels, to ensure that they are recognized as people and not just statistics.
“They are people, people with lives, stories, and families, who have experienced so much trauma and anguish in their pursuit for a better life,” he said. “Sister Betty lives her life by retelling these stories for folks who are unable to tell them anymore, to keep their memory alive, and to share how the violence and the U.S. policy are really affecting the Juarez community and communities beyond.”
Brazilian native Mariana Lima Becker Ph.D. ’23, a past participant who addressed the class just prior to their departure, characterized her own border experience as “transformative.” “I was struck by the question of how, as educators, can we adjust to better serve immigrant children and their families?” she said. “What should we be doing to ‘build’ culturally sustaining schools, to address the trauma that results from immigration?”
In Mexico, the Lynch School contingent met Sister Betty Campbell, center, who works to preserve the names and memories of trafficked, abused, and victimized migrants. She “lives her life by retelling these stories for folks who are unable to tell them anymore,” said one visitor.
photo by luisa arumi ortiz rangel
$3.3m Grant Funds Next Phase of RPCA Study
Continued from page 1 behavioral effects of trauma may travel across generations, she explained: The NIMH grant will enable the researchers to gather quantitative data based on biological indicators of stress reactivity and self-regulation, such as inflammatory markers and telomere length.
“We will be adding a new biological perspective to understand the embedding of the trauma-related stress response in more simple terms: how war-time stressors get ‘under the skin,’ including heritable biophysiological disruptions, and what the implications are for the next generation,” said Betancourt. “Understanding leverage points in how to improve parent-child interactions, despite a family history of trauma, is very important for helping to inform development of evidence-based interventions that are scalable and high-quality even in the most low-resource of settings.”
Betancourt’s research in Sierra Leone has been cited as the most extensive examination of post-war intergenerational relationships since studies of Holocaust survivors. She has also undertaken projects in Rwanda, Uganda, India, Mexico, Ethiopia, and the Russian Federation. Betancourt is currently involved in intervention studies to help promote early childhood development and prevent violence among families in extreme poverty in Rwanda, and works with refugees resettling in New England and in communities around the world.
She noted that the interventions developed by RPCA—and being evaluated for effectiveness as well as feasibility and acceptability—do not require highly-credentialed professionals for implementation; instead, these are delivered by non-specialist workers, including well-trained and wellsupervised community health workers.
“We have found that these sorts of interventions can be deployed via new and innovative delivery platforms such as social protection programs, or educational and livelihoods programs. When delivered with high quality and fidelity, we have found that non-specialist-provided interventions can have an important impact on promoting both child development and mental health while also reducing intergenerational violence.
“We have seen this in some of the family-based preventative work that we have been doing in post-genocide Rwanda that we are working to bring to west Africa as well as to migrant and refugee populations globally. In fact, our team is presently beginning collaborative work to help respond to the Afghan refugee resettlement across the United States, adapting similar models of family-based prevention.”
Betancourt hailed the long-term collaboration RPCA has had with its many partners in Sierra Leone, including CARITAS and the University of Makeni, and the new opportunities for collaborations with Kenema General Hospital and Tulane University under this NIMH grant.
“An interdisciplinary response is sorely needed to deal with the intergenerational challenges that result from war and other situations of violence globally,” she said.
“An interdisciplinary response is sorely needed,” says Betancourt, “to deal with the intergenerational challenges that result from war and other situations of violence globally.”
Kapurura Wins Scholarship
Continued from page 1 S.J., who presented the award. “When I think about Dr. King, I think about a person who had an abiding sense of mission, and who had a sense of purpose that sustained him. We need people who can help inspire us, who can bring strength.”
Kapurura, an economics major and African and African Diaspora Studies minor, grew up in the predominantly white city of Salem, Ore., the daughter of Zimbabwean parents. She enrolled at Boston College in 2019 “ready to experience some diversity, some different cultures, some different people, different perspectives,” she recalled. “I wanted to be in a place that was new, exciting, and fun.”
She dove in headfirst, completing BC’s Options Through Education program, designed to support first-year students who have demonstrated potential and leadership in spite of challenging educational and financial circumstances, which helped her adjust to college life and build a network of support. Since then, she’s become an ambassador for the Thea Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center, gone on a Magis Civil Rights Immersion Trip—a six-day tour through Georgia and Alabama with stops at major sites related to the civil rights movement—and served as a facilitator for Courageous Conversations, a program promoting dialogue around racial justice. She also co-chaired the organizing committee for last year’s Black History Month opening ceremony.
Kapurura’s personal mission, inside and outside the classroom, has always been to promote social justice. In high school, she served as a student advisor to the State Board of Education working on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. And at BC, she chose economics as her major because it was centered around problem solving and, combined with her African and African Diaspora Studies minor, would equip her to combat the inequities she observed growing up.
Her most powerful tool is her voice: A charismatic public speaker and talented writer, she won the title of America’s Best College Poet in 2021 and has delivered two TEDx talks, one on racial stereotypes and another on how her bicultural identity has helped her pursue a meaningful life.
“Kudzai has the imagination and vision of an artist and the practicality of an economics major,” said Cooney Family Director of the PULSE Program Meghan Sweeney. “She uses her gifts and skills to draw people to her and build community as a leader.”
Kapurura plans to attend law school after graduation, and to continue to inspire others with her words, as Dr. King famously did with his “I Have a Dream” speech. In her acceptance remarks, she marveled at the power of oratory to break down barriers and ignite social progress.
“I stand by my mission to use my voice as a tool in the fight towards social justice,” she told the audience, which included her parents. “It starts with a speech, with a word, and with a crowd willing to listen that history can be made.”
Alix Hackett is a senior digital content writer in the Office of University Communications
University President William P. Leahy, S.J., and Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center Director Michael Davidson, S.J., flank MLK Scholarship finalists (L-R) Tamara Hyppolite, Kudzai Kapurura, Lubens Benjamin, and E’Sachi Smalls (finalist Michael Martins was not present).
A look at the other finalists for the 2022 Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship:
Lubens Benjamin, Boston
Major: marketing; minor in philosophy A member of the AHANA+ Leadership Council, Benjamin has worked in the Student Summer Admissions Program and served as a mentor in both the Big Brothers and the Multicultural Leadership Experience programs. He also served as a leader in the Appalachia Volunteers Program and on a Kairos retreat. After graduation, Benjamin hopes to work on nonprofit campaigns that benefit educational programs in his childhood neighborhood.
Tamara Hyppolite, Tewksbury, Mass.
Major: nursing; minor in psychology The Lift as You Climb and Bowman Advocates programs have been two of Hyppolite’s most meaningful commitments while at Boston College. An Options Through Education scholar, she has also participated in the Jamaica Magis and Magis Civil Rights immersion trips. After graduation, Hyppolite plans to pursue a Ph.D. in nursing, specializing in psychology, in order to treat children who are struggling with mental health while also educating parents on how to better help their children.
Michael Martins, Walpole, Mass.
Major: political science; minor in International Studies In addition to working at the Thea Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center, Martins is a mentor for the Boston College Democrats FLAME Mentorship Program and participated in a Magis Civil Rights Immersion Trip. Off campus, Martins was an intern for the Coalition for Social Justice, where he engaged in politics at the local level. He hopes to pursue a career in law or politics.
E’Sachi Smalls, Bronx, N.Y.
Major: nursing Smalls cites her employment in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, where she has worked since her freshman year, as among her most formative experiences at Boston College. She is also an MLE Mentor, the head coordinator for Nursing Outreach, a student ambassador for the Student Admissions Program, and a Bowman Advocate. She hopes to pursue a career in nursing, with a special focus on addressing health disparities facing Black women.
Information avoidance has been a topic of study for several years, said Hunter, who added that many of the results were surprising.
“We would have expected that users who had avoided looking at their credit score, upon seeing that they were doing badly—or had a declining credit score— would have been inspired to work to improve their credit score, but we see instead that they do worse,” Hunter said. “Additionally, we find that this result holds even for users in the top tercile of credit scores.”
But for users with top credit scores that are trending upward, upon checking, their credit score increases an additional 21 points, said Hunter, noting that it is difficult to improve upon the highest credit scores.
Hunter said the next steps in the research will be determining the driving forces behind these results. Among the factors that deserve further attention is the role of credit card debt and debt repayment strategies.
photo by flavio debarros
How Consumers Handle the Truth About Credit Scores
BY ED HAYWARD
STAFF WRITER
For some consumers, it may make more sense to avoid information they receive about themselves.
That’s a takeaway from a new study by Carroll School of Management Assistant Professor of Marketing Megan Hunter, who found that for some consumers checking a credit score ultimately leads to a drop in that number.
Hunter and a colleague studied data about the actions people took when they were reminded by a consumer services firm to check their credit scores and the subsequent impact on those scores, said Hunter, a co-author of the report in the journal Marketing Science.
The study’s most intriguing findings center on consumers with declining credit score trends. First, those consumers were more reluctant to check their credit score, said Hunter. And those that saw their scores had declined were less likely to
Megan Hunter
photo by lee pellegrini
check their score the following month—an indication that this segment of consumers did not try to make changes that would improve their scores.
The researchers looked at what happened when the company asked its users— via email—to check their credit scores.
“Users who are on a declining credit score trend, when nudged to check their credit score, upon checking, their score declines an additional 23 points,” Hunter said.
The researchers saw different results for consumers whose credit scores were stable or improving.
“For users on an increasing or flat credit score trend, upon checking their score, their score increases an additional nine points,” said Hunter, who added that the results were similar for consumers with low, medium, and high credit scores.
Hunter said the findings are important for companies who communicate personal financial information to their customers. Computer simulations run by Hunter and co-author Jessica Fong of the University of Michigan also showed that sending such information can decrease consumer retention as well as harm the consumer’s outcomes, depending on the consumer’s current status.
Study Mulls Impact of School Closure on Elections
BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR
During the first several months of the pandemic, public school closures in the United States were largely viewed as an unpopular but necessary measure to protect the health and safety of students and school employees, and their families. Nowadays, however, parents in many states are less likely to tolerate school shutdowns— and their frustration could have nationwide political implications, according to two Boston College researchers.
Assistant Professor of Political Science Michael Hartney and doctoral student Renu Mukherjee say that, based on their analysis of last year’s gubernatorial race in Virginia, Democratic candidates may pay the price in this fall’s midterm elections for their support—whether tacit or explicit— of remote learning. The pair presented their findings in a recent article for City Journal, a public policy magazine and website published by the Manhattan Institute for Research.
At issue, Hartney and Mukherjee explained, is that many of the school closings last fall were less related to COVID and more in response to other, longstanding problems pre-dating the pandemic, such as staff shortages, employee grievances, labor politics, and mental health “burn-out” among teachers.
In Virginia—where nearly 10 percent of school districts curtailed in-person learning days for non-COVID reasons in the fall of 2021—the two researchers found that GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin’s criticism of school closures was a significant factor in voters choosing him over Democratic incumbent Ralph Northam. In fact, looking at districts with local public schools open for less than a month of in-person learning during the 2020-2021 academic year, Hartney and Mukherjee noted, Youngkin’s numbers were significantly better than
Michael Hartney and Renu Mukherjee analyzed the 2020 Virginia governor’s race, and found that criticism of school closings—many of which were unrelated to COVID—was a major factor in the GOP victory.
those of Donald J. Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Media coverage and polling strongly suggested that parents who went for Youngkin were frustrated by what they saw as a lack of understanding by the so-called “laptop class”—mainly higher-income voters, and likely to vote Democratic—of the burdens that remote learning placed on middle- and working-class families, noted Hartney and Mukherjee.
The two researchers sought to evaluate Virginia voters’ concerns about school closures in comparison with other salient education campaign issues, notably those related to school districts’ diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (DEI), on a district-by-district basis—examining whether, for example, a district’s mission statements prioritized equity issues and whether it formally employed a DEI officer.
photo of hartney by lee pellegrini
“DEI issues certainly played a role in the Virginia election,” said Hartney, “but closures appeared to have had an even stronger effect on voting patterns across districts.”
The Virginia project echoes a 2020 study of nearly 10,000 districts nationwide, co-authored by Hartney, which found that voters’ partisan attachments were the strongest determinant of whether schools reopened for in-person learning in the fall of 2020: Counties that voted solidly for Hillary Clinton in 2016 were less likely to hold in-person classes than those that backed Donald Trump. Districts with stronger teachers unions were also far less likely to bring students back to the classroom, according to that study.
Earlier in the pandemic, Hartney said, schools were often widely viewed with sympathy for their efforts to serve students despite the challenges of COVID protocols and remote learning—but that time may have passed. “Public school districts have received an unprecedented amount of federal funds— nearly $200 billion—during the pandemic, but even some Democratic officials have begun to express frustration at how little of it has been spent by local districts,” he explained. “In many states, governors also put teachers at the front of the line to receive vaccinations. But what we’ve seen from many large urban school districts in the past year is a knee-jerk pivot to remote learning, and not necessarily because of significant increases in COVID risk either.
“So when Glenn Youngkin empathized with parents who—interested as they might be in contentious culture war issues arising in their districts—are ultimately much more concerned about schools returning to normalcy, and then he outperformed President Trump, that’s a trend to watch.”
Even though school closures, COVIDrelated or not, might decline as the pandemic eases, Hartney thinks Democrats can ill afford to think the issue is behind them. “A lot of damage is already done. Communities where kids didn’t go to school and had trouble with remote learning are concerned about potential educational and social development problems among children. And if there are more COVID outbreaks, given their track record, it won’t take much for schools that closed to do so again, so it’ll be a one step forward, two steps back situation. That will not sit well with many voters, especially in suburban communities like those that unexpectedly gravitated to Youngkin because they agreed with him about school closings. If they swing to the GOP, that is big trouble for Democrats.”
Read Michael Hartney and Renu Mukherjee’s article at city-journal.org/schoolclosures-have-electoral-consequences
STM Showing Positive Results in Placing New Grads
Despite the ongoing challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the School of Theology and Ministry saw another strong year of placement for new graduates. Ninety-six percent of 2021 graduates secured placement within six months of graduation. Top areas of placement were parish ministry (18.9 percent) and high school teaching (15).
As a school grounded in the Ignatian tradition, discernment—particularly vocational discernment—is central to STM’s approach to formation and career development. Formation staff, faculty, and alumni all contribute to the personal process of offering assistance to students in their discernment of ministry and career options.
“The way the STM is able to combine academic rigor in theological study and holistic ministerial formation accounts for the school’s success in assisting students to find meaningful work after graduation,” said STM Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Career Services Jacqueline Regan. “I am frequently contacted by employers from across the country as they seek to recruit STM graduating students or alumni for positions at their organizations. The size of the STM and our growing alumni network work to our advantage. We are small enough to offer one-on-one personal assistance, connecting STM students with alumni mentors and employers. At the same time, STM students have access to the outstanding resources of the Boston College Career Center. On either side of Comm. Ave., there is someone eager to work with and assist our graduating students.”
The extent of STM’s personalized support was appreciated by graduates, especially in the midst of pandemic-related adaptations.
“I’m grateful for the holistic support I received from the STM when I began my job search,” said Anna Ryan M.Div. ’21. “The many resources offered by STM career services were invaluable to me, in particular the creatively re-imagined ministry expo [multi-field career fair] into virtual panels of STM alumni in specific fields, and the one-on-one support from resume and cover-letter writing to salary negotiation.
“In a time of pandemic-era uncertainty, the STM helped me feel secure in my skill set and prepared to market my experience to potential employers,” added Ryan, who now serves as director of campus ministry at Chestnut Hill College in Pennsylvania.
John Morton M.A. ’21 said, “When it came time to find a position after graduating from the STM, the Career Services at the school were so important to me. I received helpful information including relevant job listings that outlined positions I should apply for based on my past work experience. STM Career Services also provided tips on building a strong resume and improving interview skills.”
He also pointed to elements of STM’s approach to formation as essential to his career discernment. “I think what was most meaningful for me in the job search process was the STM formation that came through classes such as Spiritual Formation for Ministry and Contextual Education. Through these classes, I learned that it was important to always take the opportunity to step back and spend time with God in prayer in order to discern the next step for me while keeping an open mind and heart to where the Holy Spirit would lead.”
Morton now serves as the director of development for the Catholic Parishes of the Blue Hills. “The formation I received at the STM spiritually and professionally has made such a strong impact in helping me grow as a disciple that it will lead to success in this new role.” —Anthony Russo and Jacqueline Regan, School of Theology and Ministry
Q&A: Kent Greenfield Palin vs. The New York Times—What Happens Now?
On February 15, a jury found that The New York Times did not defame Sarah Palin in a 2017 editorial, a day after the federal judge presiding over the case said he would dismiss the former Alaska governor’s libel lawsuit regardless of what the jury ultimately decided. Palin had sued the Times and its former editorial page editor, James Bennet, over an editorial that falsely linked her to a 2011 mass shooting that killed six people and severely injured Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The Times later issued a correction, stating that “no such link was established” between Palin and the shooting, and during subsequent testimony at an evidentiary hearing, Bennet clarified that the editorial was meant to critique heated political rhetoric, not to blame Palin for the attack on Giffords and the others.
Supreme Court precedent in the 1964 case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan shields journalists from liability over honest mistakes made when covering public officials or figures like Palin. The so-called actual malice standard means reporters are only liable for defamation if they knew the statement was false when they published it or if they had a reckless disregard for its falsity.
First Amendment scholars, including Boston College Law School Professor Kent Greenfield, closely watched Palin’s suit, the first libel case against The New York Times to go to trial in the United States in 18 years. Last week, Greenfield spoke with Chronicle about the implications of the Palin case and what it may portend for the future.
Palin is expected to continue her fight, but given that the judge and jury sided with the Times, her appeal has been characterized as an “uphill battle.”
Kent Greenfield: “Compared to other modern democracies, our standards for libel are much more protective of journalists.”
What different strategies and/or new evidence would her legal team need to introduce to succeed in the court of appeals?
Greenfield: Ironically, a loss may have been exactly what Palin was going for. The judge and jury almost certainly got the result correct under the protective standard of Sullivan, which protects reporting about public figures unless journalists are reckless or intentionally wrong in their reporting. But judges and scholars are increasingly questioning whether Sullivan’s standard is too protective, and Palin could not have appealed a victory. She needed a loss in order to appeal up the chain of the courts, with hope of getting to the Supreme Court.
If she were to make it to the Supreme Court, how would you characterize Palin’s chances?
Greenfield: At least two of the current justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, have indicated that they believe Sullivan should be overturned. Their point is that with the expansion of modern news, Sullivan is too protective of falsehood. I am not sure, however, where Palin could find three more votes to reverse Sullivan. One vulnerable aspect of the law is that the protective standard applies to reporting about any public figure, even those who do not intentionally thrust themselves into the public eye. (Justice Elena Kagan even made such a point in a law review article before she was on the court.) That is not Palin. I think the chance of overturning, or limiting Sullivan is higher in a case in which the plaintiff is more of an I-just-got-caught-upin-a-public-controversy kind of person.
Some observers and commentators have expressed concern that any Supreme Court change to the Sullivan precedent would have significant detrimental effects on press freedoms. How would you characterize those prospective changes and their respective impact?
Greenfield: Compared to other modern democracies, our standards for libel are much more protective of journalists. There is little doubt that when Sullivan was decided, it was a crucial decision that led to a robust, vibrant journalistic culture. One prominent First Amendment scholar said at the time that Sullivan was “occasion for dancing in the streets.” But also true is that the Sullivan standard does not deter carelessness—only recklessness or worse—on the part of journalists. When I teach Sullivan, my students and I discuss how a legal rule that under-deters carelessness will increase the amount of carelessness in the system. And more carelessness leads to more falsehoods. In the end, it comes down to a choice between (1) a legal framework that protects journalists at the cost of more falsehoods or (2) a framework that restricts journalists but has fewer falsehoods.
Critics of the outcome have cited that there were no repercussions for James Bennet, who wrongly accused Palin of inciting the murders of six people, and his false accusation was then widely distributed through the paper’s multiple channels. Why should Sullivan allow this to happen without any penalties for the author? Are the protections for journalists afforded by Sullivan too broad and do they need to be revised?
Greenfield: I am of the mind that a good amount of our free speech jurisprudence could use some updating. We in the United States have more protections of speech than any other country at any time in history. I would, for example, rethink the level of constitutional protections provided for corporate speakers, for campaign expenditures, and for violent or injurious speech, among other things. And I do think that reasonable people can disagree about the proper level of protection afforded journalists, especially since “journalists” now include everyone from reporters at The New York Times to social media influencers on TikTok. We live in a world created in part by Sullivan: a vibrant, pulsing world of news and commentary bombarding us constantly—much of which contains falsehoods.
—Phil Gloudemans
Snapshot
Masquerade Ball
The African Student Organization hosted its annual fashion show on February 25 in Robsham Theater. This year’s event, titled “Masquerade Ball,” featured a short film, interspersed with a fashion show and a performance by the Presenting Africa to You student dance troupe.
photo by tim correira Jobs
