Boston College Chronicle

MAY 21, 2020

PUBLISHED BY THE BOSTON COLLEGE OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

BC, Pine Manor College Announce Agreement

BY JACK DUNN ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

University Health Services nurses Melissa DeNucci and Yolanda Hobin with medical record and technology assistant Margaret Bligh. photo courtesy of university health services

Vigilance and Readiness Coronavirus crisis shines a light on the vital role of University Health Services, on the front lines of Boston College’s response

BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR

If there’s one department at Boston College that has the deepest, most up-close insight into the coronavirus pandemic, it’s University Health Services.

UHS had its eye on the virus well before COVID-19 began attracting media and public attention, increasing its vigilance and readiness as the outbreak began to proliferate. And UHS was at the forefront of the University’s battle against the disease when it came to campus.

Although an unprecedented event in many respects, the coronavirus crisis has shined a light on the special challenges of being a health care provider in a major university setting. For BC’s University Health Services personnel, the first months of 2020 tested not only their collective professional skills, but also their ability to adapt to fast-changing circumstances, collaborate with other BC offices and departments, and deliver different levels of care as necessary in an atmosphere of considerable anxiety about the threat of COVID-19.

The period of March 16, when UHS

began testing for coronavirus, through April 22 offers a snapshot of the department’s activity. During this time, the department recorded 151 patient COVIDrelated contacts—by phone, telehealth sessions, or in-person visits—61 of which resulted in “unique” COVID-19 visits and evaluations. UHS administered 31 coronavirus tests on students living on or off campus; 17 of these were positive.

Such numbers barely hint at the dayin/week-out assortment of tasks and procedures that have made up the UHS effort against the coronavirus, even while continuing to meet students’ other healthrelated needs.

“I think Health Services has performed exceptionally well,” said UHS Director Thomas Nary, MD, in a recent interview.

“We’ve gone by all the guidelines for health care workers as we’ve provided care to students who’ve needed it, and there have only been a few instances where someone had to miss a shift. Everybody showed up and did their jobs.”

Continued on page 4

Pine Manor College and Boston College have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will integrate the two institutions in a common mission to serve underrepresented, first-generation, low-income students.

Under the agreement, Brookline-based Pine Manor College, a private, four-year liberal arts college renowned for serving underrepresented populations, will join forces with Boston College, a Jesuit, Catholic university with longstanding success in educating immigrant and first-generation students, in an educational partnership of mutual benefit that will accelerate and expand Pine Manor College’s mission.

The agreement will establish the Pine

Manor Institute for Student Success, endowed with $50 million from Boston College, which will fund outreach and academic support programs for underserved, low-income students at Boston College. It will be guided by the legacy and ideals of Pine Manor College, whose motto “Educating with Purpose” aligns with Boston College’s motto “Ever to Excel.”

Key offices at Boston College engaged in supporting low-income students, including Learning to Learn and the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center, will be placed under the umbrella of the Pine Manor Institute for Student Success.

The institute will also link students to such BC campus programs as Options through Education, the Monserrat Coalition, the Volunteer and Service Learning Center, Appalachia Volunteers, and 4Boston.

Continued on page 3

Survey Results Indicate Faculty/Staff Satisfaction

BY THE OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

Boston College employees overwhelmingly feel fulfilled at BC, consider themselves valued members of the University community, endorse its mission, visions, and core values, and describe the University as a family-friendly place to work, according to the Faculty and Staff Experience Survey administered to all full-time BC employees in 2019.

The survey, the second such assessment performed by Boston College, yielded a 51 percent response rate involving 1,679 faculty and staff. The sample was representative of a variety of demographics, including age, gender, years of service, and areas of employment. Administered online and in paper, the survey explored employee attitudes and opinions regarding BC’s work environment and community

characteristics as well as employees’ general satisfaction and perceived opportunities for professional development.

Among the survey findings: •86 percent of University community members feel valued.

•93 percent like working at the UniverContinued on page 7

INSIDE 3 Springsteen to speak at First Year Convocation.

5 BC launches Human-Centered Engineering program.

11 Retiring, 25-year employees.

NOTICE This is the final edition of Boston College Chronicle for the 2019-20 academic year. Chronicle will publish its annual summer edition in July. Be sure to follow BC News for updates on Boston College’s plans for the 2020-21 academic year and other University news.

Chronicle

2

May 21, 2020

Alumnus Is BC’s First Knight-Hennessy Scholar

BY JACK DUNN ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

Lucas Levine ‘15, an International Studies graduate from Lafayette, Calif., has been named a Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University, where he will pursue a master’s degree in business administration at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business this fall.

Considered one of the world’s most coveted and prestigious graduate scholarships, the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program invites exceptional students and promising young leaders from around the globe to study in the discipline of their choice at any of Stanford’s graduate programs. The scholarship was established in 2016 through a gift from Stanford alumnus Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, Inc., and other benefactors, and is named for Knight and former Stanford President John Hennessy. It is the largest fully endowed graduate fellowship in the world, and provides full tuition, room and board, books and supplies, and a stipend for approximately 100 scholars each year.

The 2020 cohort features 76 scholars from 26 countries selected from a pool of 6,171 applicants.

Levine, who has worked for the past three years at the African school network Nova Pioneer in Johannesburg, South Africa, said he aspires to a career in global service, leading organizations across the private and public sectors that are focused on unlocking human potential, empowering local leaders, and bridg-

Lucas Levine ’15: “There’s an obvious through-line from BC, grounded as it is in the liberal arts and a spirit of service, to a program like Knight-Hennessy. Both aspire to produce well-rounded servant leaders.”

ing the economic gap for underserved people worldwide. ”I’m unbelievably humbled by my selection as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar, and excited to seize the opportunity and to do BC proud,” said Levine. “The scholarship frees me up to enter the experience more selflessly, enabling me to think about how I can use this opportunity to pay back my privilege and create opportunity for others.

“There’s an obvious through-line from BC, grounded as it is in the liberal arts and a spirit of service, to a program like Knight-Hennessy.

Both aspire to produce well-rounded ser-

vant leaders. BC encouraged me to engage with a wide range of disciplines, perspectives, and peoples, guided by amazing professors and alongside inspiring classmates. I couldn’t be more grateful for the academic and personal foundation that BC provided and confident that it prepared me for what lies ahead.”

Levine cites many outstanding professors in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences whose influence helped him to find his calling in the field of international relations, including Ken Kersch and Peter Krause in Political Science, and Susan Michalczyk in the Morrissey College Honors Program, whom he cites as a mentor and friend.

“I’ve known Lucas since the start of his sophomore year when he was a student in my Honors Program seminar,” said Michalczyk.

“He was A-plus then, as a young scholar and gentleman, remains A-plus in all he does, and no doubt will excel in his graduate studies at Stanford, as he continues to focus on thoughtful innovation and education to improve the lives of future generations.

“Lucas has followed an interdisciplinary approach in his academic, professional, and personal life, building upon his undergraduate studies and looking for connections so as to better understand himself and others. He is intelligent, mature, compassionate, self-aware, and humble. He is other-centered, not selfcentered—a very rare quality—and one more reason that he deserves this honor as a KnightHennessy Scholar at Stanford.”

Added Morrissey College Dean Gregory Kalscheur, S.J., “At Boston College we aspire

to help our students become well-educated, whole people of solidarity ready to take responsibility in the world and well prepared to lead lives oriented toward service of the common good. Lucas embodies that ideal, and we are proud that his outstanding academic achievement and commitment to service have been recognized through Stanford’s selection of him for this prestigious graduate fellowship.”

Upon graduating from Boston College, Levine worked as a management consultant for Deloitte and served on the local leadership team of pro-bono consulting firm Inspire, Inc., managing project teams and leading client development for the Greater Boston area, before joining Nova Pioneer in 2017. The fast-growing social enterprise operates 13 innovative schools across Africa and has more than doubled in size during his three years there. His experience in South Africa—helping to develop through education innovators and leaders who will shape the African continent—instilled in him a desire to provide true opportunity to those on the margins.

“After completing my M.B.A. at Stanford, I want to help unlock human potential in places where it is suppressed—by political or socioeconomic constraints, or other conditions that prevent people from thriving,” said Levine. “The COVID-19 pandemic has both exposed and deepened some of these inequities, and I feel eager to do what little I can to help our country and world rebuild even stronger. It’s a great time to serve.”

University Recognized as One of Nation’s Top ‘Schools for Service’ Boston College has been selected as among the top “Schools for Service” in the U.S. by the Catholic Volunteer Network (CVN), an organization of Christian volunteer and mission programs that fosters and promotes full-time national and international service opportunities.

BC was among five institutions singled out by CVN in the New England Region, along with the College of the Holy Cross, Providence College, Stonehill College, and St. Anselm College; other schools were grouped in the Mid-Atlantic, West and Southwest, and Midwest regions. [See “Schools for Service” at https://catholicvolunteernetwork.org/2020top-schools-for-service].

CVN posted the “Schools for Service” list as part of its National Volunteer Week (April 19-25) commemoration. “We’re proud to recognize one particular group of service supporters—the women and men who serve in campus ministries, service-learning and social ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

Jack Dunn SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

justice offices, and career centers at colleges and universities nationwide. These campus professionals walk with students, help them engage in service, and help them to consider how to incorporate spirituality and social justice into their lives post-graduation.

“Through this work,” CVN continued, “they help both their students and our member programs to share in the vision statement of the Catholic Volunteer Network: Through service rooted in faith, all will know the opportunity to impact the world and be transformed.”

Kate Daly, associate director of the BC Volunteer and Service Learning Center, said BC students who consider full-time service after graduation have many resources on campus—including herself, a former member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, as well as many other people across the University who serve as mentors and advisors. The VSLC works with Campus Ministry, the Career Center, Student

CONTRIBUTING STAFF

Christine Balquist Phil Gloudemans Ed Hayward Rosanne Pellegrini Kathleen Sullivan

Chronicle

PHOTOGRAPHERS

www.bc.edu/bcnews chronicle@bc.edu

Patricia Delaney EDITOR

Sean Smith

Services, and many other departments to offer programming and resources to help students make this decision, she said.

“We offer one-on-one advising and for many years held a post-graduate service discernment overnight with seniors and alumni who are former volunteers. We also host a post-grad service reception before Senior Week for seniors who have chosen full-time service. This event is attended by the many faculty, staff, and administrators who want to acknowledge this choice.”

Daly added that more than 50 of the Catholic Volunteer Network member organizations come to BC every fall for the Post-Graduate Service Fair sponsored by VSLC and the Career Center, which provides an opportunity for recruiters and students to meet one-on-one to discuss domestic and international full-time service.

Serving with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps was “a transformational year for me, and

Lee Pellegrini Peter Julian

continues to be so,” said Daly. “I am always impressed by the thoughtfulness and care our students take in discerning whether full-time service is the right next step for them. It’s a privilege to be able to walk with students wherever their heart for service might lead them.”

Daniel Ponsetto, the Welles Remy Crowther Director of the VSLC, praised Daly’s role in helping students decide on pursuing post-graduate service and said the selection of BC was gratifying in many respects.

“This recognition by Catholic Volunteer Network is an affirmation of the commitment Boston College has made to servicelearning, and an acknowledgement of the many students who choose to serve after graduation,” he said. “In a special way, it also celebrates the many wonderful staff and faculty mentors on our campus who encourage our students to serve others.”

—Sean Smith

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 University Communications, 3 Lake Street, Brighton, MA 02135 (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 University Communications, 3 Lake Street, Brighton, MA 02135.

A flipbook edition of Chronicle is available via e-mail.

Send requests to chronicle@bc.edu.

Chronicle

May 21, 2020

3

Springsteen Will Speak at First Year Convocation

BY JACK DUNN ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

Singer, songwriter, and legendary performer Bruce Springsteen, whose best-selling autobiography Born to Run provides an intimate portrait of the inner struggles and triumphs of one of America’s most beloved musical icons, will address the Class of 2024 at Boston College’s First Year Academic Convocation on Sept. 10 in Conte Forum.

Springsteen published his memoir in 2016 to critical acclaim for his candid exploration of family, faith, personal battles, and his relentless pursuit of musical perfection, providing an unobstructed view of his life’s journey from a poor upbringing in Freehold, N.J., to international acclaim as a 20-time Grammy winner, Academy Award recipient, and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree. He and his wife, Patti Scialfa, are the parents of three children, including their son Evan, a 2012 Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences alumnus.

His address will be preceded by the First Flight Procession in which all first-year students process down Linden Lane in a torch-lit ceremony to receive from members of the BC Jesuit community and campus administrators the challenge first issued by the founder of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Loyola, to “go set the world aflame.” The students will then descend the Higgins Stairs and enter into Conte Forum, following the route they will take in four years’ time as graduating seniors.

This summer, all first-year students will

Bruce Springsteen shown during the closing ceremony for the 2017 Invictus Games. photo by e.j. hersom

receive an e-copy of Springsteen’s book and a reflection guide that will help them to examine the themes raised in Born to Run—family dynamics, personal relationships, addressing adversity, and setting and fulfilling aspirations—and how they might intersect with their own lives.

“At Boston College, we have long understood from the Jesuits about the importance of engaging students in a conversation that encourages their growth intellectually, socially, and spiritually,” said Executive Director of Student Formation

Michael Sacco. “The format of the conversation can vary, but the aim remains to encourage students to be attentive to their experiences and reflective of their meaning, with the hope that this will help them discern their role in the world.

“Through his songs, Bruce Springsteen has long been such a conversation partner to his audience, masterfully portraying the American experience through lyrics that inspire reflection about our world, our families, our jobs, our struggles, and our relationships. But in his memoir, Bruce reveals the conversation he had with himself as he approached many of his life’s crossroads. In doing so, Bruce shares how attentiveness, contemplation, and authenticity played a key role in his personal growth and honing his immense talents. Each BC student brings a unique set of talents, and reading Bruce’s story will give them an invaluable perspective as they begin their formation at Boston College,” Sacco said.

First launched in 2004 as a formative experience and unifying event for all incoming students, the First Year Academic Convocation has featured award-winning authors ranging from Ann Patchett (Run) and Colum McCann (Let the Great World Spin) to political leaders Barack Obama (Dreams From My Father) and John McCain (Lives of Moral Leadership). Considered the signature academic event of freshman year, the convocation has become a beloved BC tradition that melds the University’s Jesuit, Catholic mission and heritage with its commitment to the liberal arts and formative education.

Born to Run has been lauded by critics for its frankness and eloquence, written in the authentic voice of a tenacious son of New Jersey who is considered the greatest songwriter of his generation and the poet of the American experience. NPR described the book as a “virtuoso performance,” the New York Times called it “frank and gripping,” and “intensely satisfying,” while Rolling Stone magazine described it as “an utterly unique, endlessly exhilarating, last-chance power drive of a memoir.”

Following its release, Springsteen read from the book and shared personal reminiscences in an eight-week theatrical performance called “Springsteen on Broadway.” His appearance at Boston College will be his first and only college visit.

“For the Class of 2024, Born to Run is a wonderful introduction to the lifelong process of discernment that is so central to the philosophy of student formation at Boston College,” said First Year Experience Director Ali Bane. “Springsteen’s memoir includes countless examples of him paying close attention to his life experiences, reflecting upon their meaning, and living in a way that translates this meaning into action to create a better world.

“Inspired by his own working-class upbringing, many of Springsteen’s songs empathize with those who have been marginalized or oppressed. First-year students will benefit greatly from reading this honest, reflective, and authentic narrative of someone who has so significantly shaped the cultural milieu of our country throughout his decades of music making.”

University, Pine Manor College Announce Agreement Continued from page 1

Pending approval by accreditors and appropriate state agencies, Boston College will assume responsibility for Pine Manor College along with its assets and liabilities.

Pine Manor College students will be able to remain at their school in a “teach out” agreement for a period of up to two years.

Students currently deposited or enrolled at Pine Manor College will be able to continue their associate of arts or bachelor of arts degree programs in classes taught by Pine Manor College faculty on the Pine Manor College campus. Boston College will subsidize Pine Manor College’s cost of operations to support the “teach out.” Pine Manor College students who gain admission to Boston College’s Woods College of Advancing Studies can finish their bachelor of arts degree at Boston College. All Pine Manor College students will continue to receive the financial aid necessary to meet their cost of attendance.

According to the MOU, Pine Manor College faculty and staff not engaged in the continued functioning of Pine Manor College can apply for positions at Boston College. Pine Manor faculty and staff not retained will be eligible for outplacement assistance and severance. In addition, Pine Manor College alumnae will be engaged in fostering knowledge of the history and

contributions of Pine Manor College.

“Boston College and Pine Manor College are joining forces to advance the crucial mission of expanding educational opportunities for traditionally underserved and underrepresented students,” said Pine Manor College President Thomas O’Reilly.

“Boston College brings strength, stability, outstanding programs and faculty, and a proven track record in serving this important demographic of students. Pine Manor College brings a distinctive educational model of proven success for underserved, underrepresented first-generation students owing to outstanding faculty and staff, programming, and a commitment to social justice. It is a win-win for both institutions that will help preserve the mission and heritage of Pine Manor College through the Pine Manor Institute for Student Success at Boston College.”

“These two schools have been neighboring institutions for more than half a century, and each recognizes the vital importance of educating the whole person and building a more just and humane society,” said Boston College President William P. Leahy, S.J. “Pine Manor College’s focus on helping underrepresented and underserved students obtain college degrees clearly fits with Boston College’s origins and contin-

ued commitment to recruiting and graduating talented students of various backgrounds and interests who face challenges in their pursuit of higher education. This

agreement reflects the changing realities in American higher education, and offers possibilities and opportunities for Pine Manor College, Boston College, and our world.”

This past Monday, on what would have been their Commencement day, the Boston College Class of 2020 was the subject of a video tribute (above) by Office of University Communications Senior Creative Producer John Walsh ’17. “I chose to approach the video with a nostalgic tone, much like the Examen that so many are familiar with from retreats at BC, to help prompt memories and moments of meaning for the graduates. The message of the video is ‘Perhaps there’s never been a better time for a little nostalgia, because Boston College is not just a place you come to, it’s a place you go from. How you choose to live your life going forward will only give these moments of nostalgia greater meaning.’ My hope is that seniors will view this video and do the same: Go live it, and never forget where they came from; never forget their time at Boston College.”

The video is available at https://youtu.be/umcGtuIMym8.

Chronicle

4

May 21, 2020

Pandemic a Test for BC Health Services Continued from page 1

Health and college life A college campus is a unique place to be a health care professional, according to UHS staff: The community you serve is largely between the ages of 18 and 22, most of its members are unused to being responsible for their health care—many have never even gone to see a doctor on their own—and while generally very healthy, they don’t always make the best decisions on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. What’s more, the thousands in this community tend to live and socialize in close quarters, whether on or off campus, and at various times of the academic year may be in another part of the country, or the world.

But ask Caroline Faherty, a registered nurse who’s been at UHS for almost 14 years, how she likes the job, and she is happy to tell you.

“I love working with the students,” she said. “You get to see many of them over the course of four years, and you can definitely create a bond with them. It’s great to see them learning how to take care of and advocate for themselves, how to use resources, and manage their care.”

Theresa Barba, a 30-year veteran of BC Health Services—whose mother was the nurse manager when the facility was on Newton Campus—agrees with her fellow registered nurse.

“This age group has a lot to offer,” she said. “They’re all very bright, very eager to make their own way, and we try to give them the tools to lead healthy lives, whether through our health education programs or if they should happen to visit our primary care center.”

UHS Associate Director Scott Jusseaume, MD, points to the approximately 21,000 visits a year by students to the UHS ground-level facilities at the Thomas More Apartments on Lower Campus as a measure of the department’s role at BC. “We are it. We are the health care provider on campus,” he said, noting the UHS response to a norovirus in late 2015 that sickened 140 BC students. “We deal with illnesses, injuries, chronic health issues—we are a full-bore medical practice.”

To fulfill its responsibilities as a health care provider, UHS has to be cognizant of what happens elsewhere in Massachusetts, the U.S., and the world, even as it tends to the health and well-being of BC students.

As a matter of course, Jusseaume stays in touch with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control on, for example, flu outbreaks and other potential public health risks.

Some UHS staff work in other health care settings, and know other health care professionals—other potentially useful sources for getting a read on emerging health threats. Then there are the warning signs “on the ground,” according to UHS staffers: an increase in calls from students concerned about their health or that of a roommate or friend, or from BC parents worried that their child might be ill.

UHS knew that during the semester

break some BC students had traveled to China and South Korea, identified as coronavirus hot spots, or parts of Europe starting to emerge as affected areas, and began urging those exhibiting symptoms or concerned that they might be infected to contact the department or their health care providers. UHS worked with other departments to increase health safeguarding

“They have all done an amazing job, and have made it possible for us to do our job.”

measures—already in effect for the flu season—for common areas and touchpoints on campus, and was part of the BC Emergency Management Team, which coordinated the University’s response to the coronavirus and kept the campus community informed of news and updates concerning the pandemic.

Later, when all but several hundred students left campus following the suspension of on-campus classes, UHS worked with Residential Life and the Emergency Management Team to set up the Thomas More Apartments residence hall as an area to quarantine students awaiting COVID-19 test results or isolate those testing positive.

“Our partnership with other offices and departments, like Dining Services, Facilities Services, Residential Life, BC Police, and so on, has always been important to protecting health on campus,” said Nary.

going concern. For their own safety, as well as those of students seeking care, the UHS staff had to keep up to date on recommendations from the CDC and other authorities on how health care sites should be organized and what practices medical workers should follow: UHS staff were

Health Services aide Anna Tom cleans off a chair in the UHS waiting room. photo courtesy of university health services

“You have to be on your game” Throughout February and then into March, UHS experienced a rise in visits and calls from students complaining of illness, although not necessarily from the coronavirus, since the flu was still an on-

“It is really is about cura personalis—care of the individual.

That’s a big part of what we teach at BC, and in a case like this, we want people to care not just for themselves but for others. I think that the students have done very well in that regard.”

—Thomas Nary, MD given a list of specific questions to ask in response to phone calls, e-mails, or other contact from students; students showing signs of coronavirus had to be directed to a separate entrance to the UHS facility; chairs had to be cleared out of the facility’s waiting room; all staff had to wear personal protective equipment.

“Every day was like a school day for us,” said Faherty. “We learned not only about dealing with the coronavirus, but about ourselves and how we treat people.”

When you are caring for sick people, especially those who may have an infectious disease that has been making headlines all over the world, there is a certain way you have to be, according to UHS staff.

You show concern and empathy, but to a certain degree you also have to be businesslike.

“You have to be on your game, be ready to offer explanations,” said Barba. “You know they’re worried about what’s going on, whether they might be in danger. But you have to get them to listen to you, be-

cause you have to educate them. You say, ‘This is what you have to look for. This is what you have to do. This is who you call.’

And you have to get them to think beyond themselves: ‘Don’t be in contact with other people, because you might make them sick.’”

“Having staff show that confidence helps when students come in,” said Jusseaume. “They’ve had to do so much, learning and assimilating new protocols in an environment that’s more dangerous than usual. They’re showing up to work, at some risk to themselves, and they’re providing good care.”

According to Nary and Jusseaume, UHS has received health-related updates from most of the students returning to the U.S.—and going directly home instead of to BC—from coronavirus-affected areas abroad, as well as others who left campus after on-campus classes were suspended.

This has been helpful in tracking the progress of the disease in the BC community, they said.

“It is really is about cura personalis— care of the individual,” said Nary. “That’s a big part of what we teach at BC, and in a case like this, we want people to care not just for themselves but for others. I think that the students have done very well in that regard.”

Looking, and planning, ahead As April came to an end, UHS continued to monitor the health of the 267 students remaining on campus, and the approximately 500-600 still living off-campus. The end of the academic year—one unlike any other in memory—was in sight, and the department was already starting to think about the next, despite the uncertainty throughout higher education as to what format should be adopted for the 2020-21 academic year.

“It’s always part of our routine to debrief and look back,” said Jusseaume. “This time, obviously, we’ll have a lot more to review: Did we communicate effectively?

Were there changes we should’ve implemented sooner? That’s where we’ll be in a few weeks.”

In addition to keeping track of the pandemic, and helping the University devise its operating plans for the coming academic year, Nary noted that he and his colleagues will spend the summer updating health records for returning students, and familiarizing themselves with the new group of students who will be coming to campus.

“Certainly, we’ll be thinking a lot about the coronavirus, but as always, we’re concerned with all the health needs of our students, especially those who have chronic or underlying conditions,” he said. “So over the summer, we’ll reach out and introduce ourselves, make sure everyone knows who and where we are. It’s very important to have that rapport, because if and when the time comes when they need health care—whether it’s coronavirus or anything else—you want them to know whom they can turn to.”

Chronicle

May 21, 2020

5

A Human-Centered Engineering Program University begins recruiting students for new major that integrates liberal arts focus with engineering curriculum

BY ED HAYWARD STAFF WRITER

Boston College has begun recruiting the first class for its highly anticipated HumanCentered Engineering program, a major that will integrate BC’s core liberal arts focus and a rigorous engineering curriculum to prepare students to find solutions that address critical human needs.

Launching in the fall of 2021 and guided by the fundamentals of engineering education, the Human-Centered Engineering program will emphasize experiential learning and application-based course offerings, giving students opportunities to work in collaborative teams and across disciplines to address critical issues in the areas of the environment, health, and energy.

Aligned closely with the University’s new Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, the program will create new avenues for faculty and student research in the applied sciences and respond to the high level of interest in engineering among prospective applicants considering majors in STEM fields.

Graduates will be well positioned to solve complex problems with scientific, technological, human, and societal dimensions that confront the world. The program will integrate the liberal arts focus of BC’s core curriculum with foundations of engineering, design and systems thinking applications, and service-focused capstone experiences.

The Bachelor of Science in Engineering will require 120 credits, with two thirds in engineering, mathematics, and science topics and one third in liberal arts and humanities. Projected course offerings include: Introduction to Human-Centered Engineering and Design, Human Factors in Engineering Design, Engineering for Sustainable Development, Data Science, Introduction to Machine Learning, and Applications of Control Theory and Robotics.

Vice Provost for Research Tom Chiles: “Introducing the Human-Centered Engineering program builds upon our mission to educate students and improve the lives of others.” photo by gary wayne gilbert

“Boston College’s enduring strength is rooted in the University’s ability, developed over many generations, to uphold core elements of our tradition while identifying and investing in emerging contemporary opportunities,” said Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley. “This commitment to engaging the spirit of the age helps fuel our investments in the Schiller Institute and its academic programs. The launch of an undergraduate engineering degree promises to position Boston College and our graduates to help lead the way on ethical, humancentered explorations of the possibilities and perils of technology in the 21st century.”

Anchored by a human-centered, inclusive approach and design-thinking methodologies, engineering study at Boston College will be bolstered by a global viewpoint, ethical underpinnings, and distinctive capstone projects that address real-world challenges.

“We find ourselves in a unique position

based on the complex problems the planet now faces and a seismic shift that is taking place in undergraduate engineering study,” said Vice Provost for Research Tom Chiles, who has led the planning efforts. “Introducing the Human-Centered Engineering program builds upon our mission to educate students and improve the lives of others.

Drawing upon our liberal arts offerings and our professional schools will allow us to offer a broad-based, interdisciplinary program of human-centered engineering, which many traditional engineering programs have struggled to develop.”

Approved by the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Education Policy Committee, the new major is marked by several distinctive characteristics.

Human-centered design: Guided by a significant human-centered design focus, students will learn to work with stakeholder groups, using design-thinking strategies to develop user-oriented engineering solutions. Students will develop an understanding of the intersection of technology and society, as well as an appreciation for technology’s positive and negative impacts on the world.

Engineering core: Students will be exposed to a set of engineering subjects through the Engineering Fundamentals Studio course, providing a shared knowledge base during sophomore year that can support later specialization.

Concentration areas: Students in the program will be required to build depth in a particular field of engineering by taking three advanced courses in a concentration area of their choice. Available concentrations might include mechanical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, or environmental engineering.

Reflection: Each semester, students will be given time for weekly reflection. The objectives of these sessions will help tie together the components of their technical,

engineering education; integrate their engineering education with their core classes; and examine their training in light of the needs of society.

The creation of the program coincides with the launch of the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society in a stateof-the-art science and engineering center slated to open in the fall of 2021, and the centerpiece of a $300 million investment in the sciences. The institute will become the hub for applied and innovative research that addresses complex problems by incorporating aspects of design thinking, implementation and data science, making/prototyping, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary collaboration across and beyond the BC community. Central to the Schiller Institute is interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty and students to identify solutions to society’s more pressing challenges in the areas of energy, health, and environment while also educating the next generation of science leaders.

“This will be an ambitious, intensive, and engaging new major,” Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Dean Gregory Kalscheur, S.J., said. “We will be asking our engineering students to complete a rigorous engineering curriculum and to embrace the core curriculum that provides the foundation for our distinctive identity as a Jesuit liberal arts university. Graduates of our Human-Centered Engineering program will be well prepared for lives and careers that will respond to the complex challenges they will face as they strive to build the future our rapidly changing world demands.”

The launch of the new program fits within the University mission to educate students, to support their moral formation, and to prepare them to be “men and women for others.”

Read more about Boston College’s engineering program at http://www.bc.edu/engineering.

Lynch School Ph.D. Student Awarded Ford Foundation Fellowship Jasmine Alvarado ’22, an advanced doctoral student in the Curriculum and Instruction program in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, was selected as an awardee in the 2020 Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship competition.

Announcing the award, the Ford Foundation said Alvarado’s selection for the prestigious award reflected the review panelists’ judgment of her “professional and scholarly competence” and the likelihood her career will be enhanced by the dissertation fellowship experience.

“We congratulate Ms. Alvarado as she entered a highly selective and competitive program and was identified as a scholar with outstanding credentials and promise for future achievement.”

The fellowship is underwritten by the Ford Foundation and administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The program seeks to

enhance the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by boosting their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to grow the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

Awardees are selected through a process of peer review by known scholars from across the country who voluntarily serve as evaluators.

“I am very honored to receive support from the Ford Foundation to continue to work with families, educators, and public officials of the Greater Boston area to cultivate initiatives that frame families from minoritized backgrounds as leaders and knowledge builders,” said Alvarado.

“The Lynch School is extremely proud of Jasmine’s selection as a recipient of the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship,” said Lynch School Associate Dean of Graduate Student Services Elizabeth Sparks.

Jasmine Alvarado Ph.D.’22

“Receiving this prestigious award is a testament to her scholarly achievements and her promise for a future professional career that will contribute to improving the lives of others.”

Her dissertation, titled “Traversing Multiple Spaces and Places: An Ethnographic Study of Families in a Two-Way Immersion

Program in a Gentrifying Community,” put the experiences of diverse families in a two-way immersion program—an educational model that integrates native English speakers and native speakers of another language—at the center of a broader frame of how race and class affect families’ ways of interacting in educational spaces where gentrification is a constant influence, noted Sparks.

Alvarado expressed her gratitude to Lynch School faculty members C. Patrick Proctor, Jon Wargo, and Marilyn CochranSmith, and doctoral student David Jackson ’22 “for their feedback, care, and belief in my ideas and abilities as an emerging scholar. Lastly, I want to thank Professors Beth Warren of Boston University and Roberto Gonzales of Harvard, and all the women of color with whom I have experienced many moments of expansive learning, creative expression, and joy.”

—Phil Gloudemans

Chronicle

6

May 21, 2020

BCSSW-United Way Project Targets Child Homelessness

BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR

The Boston College School of Social Work will collaborate with the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley on a project aimed at reducing homelessness among children in the Boston Public Schools (BPS) system.

Supported by a $650,000 institutional challenge grant awarded by the William T. Grant Foundation in cooperation with the Spencer Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, BCSSW and United Way will evaluate the effectiveness of the FamilyAid Boston early intervention and prevention program for homeless BPS students in grades K-8. Some 4,500 students in the BPS—more than eight percent of its total student population—are homeless each year, and another 900 are at risk of homelessness.

BCSSW faculty members involved with the initiative include Indrani Saran, an assistant professor of the practice in behavioral research and biostatistics; Assistant Professor Vincent Fusaro; part-time faculty member Jessica Johnson; and Donahue and DiFelice Endowed Professor Kirsten Davison, who is the school’s associate dean for research. Other faculty will be involved in the project as it moves forward.

BCSSW Dean Gautam Yadama, who will serve as principal investigator of the grant, said the initiative—titled “The Impact of Upstream Prevention of Homelessness on Youth Educational and Developmental Outcomes”—underscores the school’s commitment to addressing the Greater Boston area’s critical social needs, and reflects BCSSW’s history of working with nonprofit, municipal, professional, and other types of organizations to devise

innovative solutions that promote positive change.

“To accelerate our local impact, the School of Social Work could not have asked for a better partner than the United Way, given their statewide reach in addressing homelessness and its devastating impacts on the life chances of youth,” he said. “Moreover, the BC-United Way partnership will serve as a template for our work with other community partners to improve the lives of youth. This grant will also provide us with the time and resources needed to pilot a comprehensive and systematic approach to encourage and support faculty-driven research-practice partnerships, from start to finish.”

“Providing critical support services to families before they become homeless is an important factor in improving children’s educational outcomes,” said Michael K. Durkin, president and CEO at United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. “Partnering with the Boston College School of Social Work on this important project will not only ensure we are helping students and families most effectively, it will also provide us with the research and data to be able to identify what’s working and scale the solutions.”

BCSSW and United Way will seek to refine, expand, and evaluate the intervention program—piloted this past academic year by BPS in partnership with FamilyAid Boston—and create a model for developing agency capacity to participate and use research in collaboration with more schools.

BCSSW faculty will provide expertise in intervention research, implementation science, design thinking, and CommunityBased System Dynamics modeling to engage key stakeholders in understanding complex systems. The faculty members will

BCSSW Dean Gautam Yadama: “The BCUnited Way partnership will serve as a template for our work with other community partners to improve the lives of youth.” photo by christopher soldt/mts

design an intervention that addresses the impact of homelessness on youth academic and social emotional outcomes, and play a role in the subsequent implementation of the intervention at scale.

“The objective will be to create an equitable collaboration across disciplines and stakeholders that are in different informational spaces,” Yadama explained, “resulting in effective interventions that find application in the practice world.”

Among other strategies, the project will entail using an integrated database to track family and housing stability as well as children’s academic engagement and performance; convene case manager and homeless liaison supervisors in a quarterly community of practice; and use research evidence to create professional develop-

ment content for frontline nonprofit and school staff.

Yadama also plans to strengthen the infrastructure and recognition for faculty engaged in partnership research, including teaching releases and the provision of a space to house partnership meetings, video conferencing with remote partners, and a venue for learning forums. Working with other administrative offices, Yadama will seek resources for the BCSSW Center for Social Innovation’s expanded vision to support education, research, and practice innovations that strategically leverage systems science, implementation science, data science, and design thinking to adapt, test, and scale evidence-based interventions with community partners.

The BC-United Way partnership envisions a series of project outcomes, some of them short-term—reliable evidence of the most effective indicators of homelessness risk, for example, or more school districts engaged in homelessness prevention efforts.

Longer-term outcomes might include a longitudinal study of youth outcomes and housing stability and a state-wide adoption of policies that promote the most effective homelessness interventions. These in turn could lead to increased public support for such interventions, and reduced disparities for youth whose families are at risk for homelessness.

The institutional challenge grants program, according to the William T. Grant Foundation, encourages universities “to develop long-term research-practice partnerships with public-facing agencies and build the capacity of nonprofits and policymakers to use research and evidence to strengthen their ability to improve youth outcomes.”

Psych/Neuroscience Professor Earns an NSF CAREER Award

BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR

Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Stefano Anzellotti has won a five-year, $600,000 National Science Foundation CAREER Award to support his research on the brain mechanisms that enable us to recognize other people’s identity and facial expressions.

The NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program supports early-career faculty who “have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization,” according to the foundation. The program’s mission is to prepare faculty to be leaders who integrate teaching and research.

“This is a very meaningful honor,” said Anzellotti, who just finished his second year on the Boston College faculty. “Being selected for a CAREER Award indicates that my work is seen as having significance for the field, which is an important milestone for a junior faculty member. I am also pleased that the award will support the research of

Asst. Prof. Stefano Anzellotti (Psychology and Neuroscience). photo by lee pellegrini

undergraduate and graduate students involved in the project and help prepare them for their future careers.”

Anzellotti’s “SCCN Lab” investigates the mechanisms that enable us to recognize and understand other people. With the support of this CAREER Award, they will study the “complementarity hypothesis,” which states that different tasks like recognizing identity

and recognizing expressions are performed by the same brain regions—solving one of the tasks, he explained, helps to solve the other. This complementarity might be a general principle of organization of the brain.

The SCCN Lab plans to build artificial neural network models of face identity and facial expression recognition to study whether complementarity arises naturally in the models, and test their ability to predict brain activity. In addition, they will test whether similar results can be observed in other cases, studying the recognition of body identity and actions. In the end, Anzellotti and his colleagues will use new methods to investigate how multiple brain regions interact during the recognition of identity, expressions, and actions.

Anzellotti believes his work on complementarity can shed new light into social perception and more broadly into the largescale organization of the human brain. This basic research may someday enable better understanding of social cognition and its impairments, such as Autism Spectrum disorders, he said.

“It is one step along a path—but it could be a vital one,” Anzellotti explained.

“If we have models that approximate social perception and social behavior, then we can address the question of how we need to change the models to capture the differences between different individuals: Which components are similar, and which are dissimilar, across different people?”

As part of the project, Anzellotti will design courses and research opportunities for students to receive training “at the intersection between neuroscience and artificial intelligence, preparing them to study neuroscience questions with new AI tools, and to build new AI thanks to inspiration from state-of-the-art research in neuroscience.”

“AI-based analysis of brain data is an important emerging area of research, and has the potential to lead to a more precise and sophisticated understanding of the brain and its disorders,” he said. “At the same time, often AI derives inspiration from neuroscience, and students with training in both AI and neuroscience can go on to make new contributions to this expanding field.”

Chronicle

May 21, 2020

7

In Time of COVID-19, Project a DREME Come True BC professor collaborates in effort to provide athome math learning kit for students and families

BY ED HAYWARD STAFF WRITER

As the COVID-19 pandemic forced the nation’s schools to shift to remote learning, Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor Eric Dearing and his colleagues in the Development and Research on Early Math Education (DREME) Network looked for a way to help.

Within a few weeks, they had finished an at-home early math learning kit for families to help parents and teachers foster mathematics education in children up to age eight. Packaged in an eight-page PDF and available electronically, the kit has been distributed to schools and organizations supporting thousands of students throughout the U.S. “Being able to help, even a little bit, during this very stressful time for students, parents, and teachers is very gratifying,” said Dearing, a member of a team of researchers supporting the DREME Network at Stanford University [http://dreme.stanford.edu].

The kit was designed around the theme

of “math is all around us.” It shares suggestions for learning activities that draw on the principles and examples of mathematics that can be found in everyday household objects and daily activities.

For example, some activities in the kit are based around cooking recipes, conversations about sorting laundry by color or type of clothing, or a discussion on counting while setting the table for a meal. The kit also teaches math concepts using card games developed by Dearing and Professor Emeritus Beth Casey.

With funding from the Heising-Simons Foundation, the DREME Network has been at work for approximately six years as part of what’s expected to be a more than $10 million research and curriculum development initiative focused on mathematics education for children from birth to age eight.

“We are heading into the fourth phase of our DREME work addressing the foundation’s goal of creating opportunities and resources for early math learning,” Dearing said. “We also want to increase attention, in society at large, on the importance of early math learning in both the classroom and in the home, or other environments where families and young children find themselves.”

The DREME At-Home Early Math Learning Kit has been shared with school districts across the U.S., including major cities in California, Illinois, Maryland,

Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor Eric Dearing photo by caitlin cunningham

Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, and reaching thousands of families with young children. The kit is also being shared widely by public libraries, children’s museums, news media groups, child care centers, and nonprofit organizations that support families.

Included in the kit are: tips for bringing math into storybook time; two easy recipes

for cookies and personal pizzas designed to allow families to start math conversations while cooking; ideas to quickly uncover and talk about math in everyday moments, like cleaning up toys or getting ready for bed; and directions for four card games that are fun and allow children to practice skills like adding and comparing numbers.

[The kit can be downloaded from the DREME website at http://dreme.stanford. edu.]

Dearing said the development of the kit was supported by his team of researchers—led by BC’s DREME Project Director Sara Schnitzer—including Lynch School doctoral students Ariadne Nelson, Lindsay Clements, Julie Kim, and Catalina Rey Guerra; masters’ students Alden Burnham and Amanda Stroiman; and undergraduates Alexia Kovatsis and Hope Dragelin.

Before the pandemic, the DREME Network had already been offering math education supports to providers who work closely with families: pediatricians, librarians, social workers, and parent educators, for example.

“The pandemic and resulting school closing created a huge need among early childhood teachers for these types of resources,” Dearing said. “Districts, preschool teachers, and families themselves have been desperate to have resources that aid learning at home while also recognizing and helping with the tremendous stress that families are under.”

Positive Results Seen in Second BC Faculty/Staff Survey Continued from page 1

sity because of its mission, vision, and core values.

•89 percent of employees agree that BC is a family-friendly place to work.

•87 percent feel fulfilled at BC. •About two-thirds of employees agreed or strongly agreed that BC’s Jesuit, Catholic tradition is a positive factor that influenced their decision to come (61 percent) and remain (66 percent) at the University.

Respondents to the survey also indicated areas needing improvement, notably the classroom climate for female and AHANA faculty, as well as treatment of employees based on disabilities, gender, race/ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

The survey, however, showed an increase in the percentage of AHANA employees rating aspects of the BC community favorably from the 2015 report: Ninety percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that BC is a family-friendly place to work, compared to 86 percent previously, and 71 percent said they feel free to speak up on issues important to them, three percent more than in 2015. AHANA staff also agreed or strongly agreed, at a higher rate compared to 2015, that key executives and administrators make diversity a priority: 62 percent, up from 53.

Faculty satisfaction rose from 78 percent to 84 percent in the recent survey, with the most commonly cited factors including “engaged” and “committed” students, the

“wonderful” and “supportive” colleagues, and the teaching. Seventy-six percent of faculty respondents said they would probably or definitely encourage a faculty member resembling themselves to accept a position at BC. In general, faculty and staff reflected positively on the BC community. They rated the BC environment well above the midpoint on the scale (3.0) for the measures of “welcoming” and “sense of community.”

“While there is more to be done to improve everyone’s experience, we are proud of the progress we’ve made on a number of areas and remain committed to ensuring a positive and productive environment for everyone at Boston College.”

–Vice Provost Billy Soo The University’s professional development and training resources also received generally positive marks: 94 percent of staff agreed they have access to training and professional development, while 80 percent indicated they are given necessary resources

to succeed. Many employees noted their work environment was enhanced by professional development and personal enrichment programs provided by BC. A noticeable difference of opinion concerned recruitment, retention, and advancement/promotion for female employees. Male faculty members (83 percent) were more likely than female faculty (64 percent) to agree or strongly agree that their department makes a genuine effort to recruit and retain female faculty. Similarly, male staff (64 percent) were more likely than female staff (54 percent) to agree or strongly agree that they had opportunities for advancement and promotion.

The survey noted that University supervision and management is regarded as an asset by a solid majority of staff respondents: 90 percent reported that their supervisor or manager treats them with respect, a key factor in employees’ desire to stay at BC. Boston College senior administrators said they found the survey results encouraging.

“The survey again showed us that our faculty and staff at Boston College feel valued, respected, and have the ability to grow and thrive personally and professionally,” said Vice President for Human Resources David Trainor. “While we have made good progress in many areas, we still have work to do to enhance the experience

of all the members of the BC community.

We remain committed to working closely with everyone on the Heights to continue our momentum toward realizing our full potential as a community of learners.”

“We are pleased that faculty remain increasingly satisfied with their work-life at Boston College,” said Vice Provost for Faculties Billy Soo. “While there is more to be done to improve everyone’s experience, we are proud of the progress we’ve made on a number of areas and remain committed to ensuring a positive and productive environment for everyone at Boston College.”

“As a new member of the BC community, it is definitely remarkable to see how the survey data reflects what I’m learning and hearing on the ground—that faculty and staff generally feel valued and are fulfilled in their roles,” said Vice President for Institutional Research and Planning Mara Hermano, who joined the University last September. “This survey reveals quantitative and qualitative dimensions to the experiences of different members of our community and the data provides insights into areas of excellence as well as opportunities for improvement. We’ve already seen positive gains since the 2015 survey, and with focused attention and ongoing assessment of specific initiatives, we will continue building a community that welcomes and respects all.”

Chronicle

8

May 21, 2020

Romero Winner Staying True to Her Roots

BY KATHLEEN SULLIVAN STAFF WRITER

Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences junior Monica Sanchez, who immigrated to the U.S. as a child and plans to attend law school and practice immigration law to serve others, was awarded the University’s 2020 Saint Oscar A. Romero Scholarship.

The Romero Scholarship, which covers a significant portion of senior-year tuition, is given annually to a BC junior who has demonstrated superior academic achievement, extracurricular leadership, community service, and involvement with the Hispanic/Latinx community and Hispanic/ Latinx issues both on and off campus.

“I love BC. I think it’s the best place on earth,” said Sanchez in her acceptance speech at the Saint Oscar A. Romero Scholarship Award Ceremony, which was held May 14 via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. University President William P. Leahy, S.J., announced her as the winner.

A political science and history major, Sanchez was born in Colombia and moved to New Jersey with her mother when she was eight. She is the incoming co-president of OLAA (Organization of Latin American Affairs), a student group that has been an

important part of her time at Boston College.

“OLAA has given me a platform to welcome Latinx students on campus,” she said.

“Without it, BC would not be BC. I’ve been able to meet great mentors through it, [get to know] great people, and do great events that have really shaped my experience.”

Sanchez has worked as a Spanish tutor, volunteered at Rosie’s Place, and participated in Learning to Learn’s Dominican Republic Service Learning and Immersion Program. She has served as an orientation leader and as an ambassador for the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center (BAIC).

She interned at Catholic Extension in its Latin American Sisters Program with the Woods College of Advancing Studies, an initiative that brings women religious to the U.S. to earn master’s degrees and serve in various dioceses.

“This program has changed my life— the things we’ve done with the sisters and what I’ve been able to learn from the sisters. If anyone ever has the chance to interact with nuns, well, I can tell you they’re awesome. The Jesuits are great too, but the nuns are awesome!”

In her remarks at the ceremony, Sanchez

AD Jarmond Leaves for UCLA William V. Campbell Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond has accepted the position as director of athletics at the University of California-Los Angeles, the school announced on May 19.

Jarmond, who joined Boston College in June 2017 from Ohio State University, led the first strategic plan in Boston College athletics history, a comprehensive, five-year set of goals and aspirations that seeks to advance the program by fostering student-athlete formation, strengthening competitive excellence, increasing external engagement, and enhancing facilities.

The strategic plan led to a $150 million capital campaign—also the first in program history—called “Greater Heights, the Campaign for Boston College Athletics.” The

campaign has raised approximately $120 million for BC Athletics to date.

Among the coaching hires during Jarmond’s tenure were football coach Jeff Hafley, women’s basketball coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, who was named ACC Coach of the Year this season, and volleyball coach Jason Kennedy, who guided the team to a 20-win season in his second year.

In a statement, Boston College wished Jarmond and his family the very best in his new endeavor as AD of UCLA, and said that a search for a successor will begin immediately.

JM Caparro, who currently serves as senior associate athletics director for external affairs, was named interim athletics director, effective May 26.

—BC Athletics and University Communications

Students in the Theatre for Youth course taught by Assoc. Prof. of the Practice Luke Jorgensen, assistant chair of the Theatre Department, made home videos of themselves telling their favorite fairy tales and shared them with teachers at nine area schools where they had been scheduled to perform during the spring. Right, Matt Dolly ’21—shown during a class rehearsal before the University transitioned to online classes—played the part of Humpty Dumpty.

Read more at https://bit.ly/on-with-theshow.

photo courtesy of luke jorgensen

Monica Sanchez ’21 soldt/mts

photo by christopher

thanked the scholarship committee and her supporters, including her mother as well as Erika Cedrone of Catholic Extension and Joana Maynard of BAIC. The virtual ceremony was organized by the Romero Scholarship Committee, co-chaired by Marcela Norton and Milvia Sanchez. Carolina Tiru ’20, last year’s Romero Scholarship recipient, spoke during the event and BC Jesuit Community member Donald MacMillan, S.J., offered the opening prayer.

All three finalists for the scholarship

were recognized during the ceremony and received gift certificates to the Boston College Bookstore.

A look at the two other Romero Scholarship candidates: Mariana Quintero Tapasco is a Hispanic Studies and psychology double major in the Morrissey College. She participated in the Multicultural Alzheimer’s Prevention Program, which investigated the disproportionate effect Alzheimer’s disease has on the Latino population. She is a Yawkey Foundation Scholar and a Massachusetts General Hospital Youth and Alumni Scholar.

Adriana Gonzalez is a political science and neuroscience double major in the Morrissey College. She has published Yo Soy La Monarca, El Dolor Ignorado De Los Niños Con TDAH (I Am the Monarch Butterfly, the Ignored Pain of Children with ADHD), a guide for educators working with children who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The book was published in Gonzalez’s native country of Mexico where ADHD is less understood.

She also has been involved in voter registration drives on campus. Gonzalez plans to attend law school and serve as an advocate for those within the immigration system.

Gonzalez and Quintero Tapasco each received a scholarship of up to $3,000.

BC Debuts ‘The Show @ 6’

BY PHIL GLOUDEMANS STAFF WRITER

On Tuesday, Boston College presented the first in a series of online “fireside chats,” hosted by administrators, faculty, and students who discuss a wide range of critical topics and issues in the world today. “The Show @ 6: BC and the Common Good” is broadcast at 6 p.m. EDT on Tuesdays and Fridays via a Zoom platform capable of hosting 1,000 viewers.

The debut episode featured TV and film star Chris O’Donnell ’92, H’17, who spoke on “Forming Men and Women for Others.” Canisius Professor of Theology James F. Keenan, S.J., the University’s vice provost for global engagement, and junior Tiffany Brooks served as hosts.

To register for the “The Show,” go to http://bc.edu/showat6.

Revolving around the theme of the common good, topics on “The Show” include how the world is dealing with the effects of COVID-19; alumni and undergraduate experiences; resiliency; and what can be done to help various marginalized populations.

The idea for “The Show” grew out of an April 21 seminar hosted by the Jesuit Institute—of which Fr. Keenan is director—titled “Catholicism and the University.” According to Fr. Keenan, the seminar touched on the idea of accompaniment, a quintessential aspect of the Jesuits’ ministry and worldview, characterized by “living and walking beside those whom we serve.”

Amy Yancey, the University’s vice president for development, posed the question, “How could we accompany BC students from the end of the spring semester until the beginning of fall semester in the face of the coronavirus and the present lockdown?

Is there a way to address the vulnerability experienced throughout the University community that a crisis of this magnitude causes?”

The concept that emerged was a virtual “talk show” that would be available via Zoom, and Fr. Keenan and four other members of the seminar volunteered to develop it: Vice Provost for Research and Academic Planning Tom Chiles, Vice Provost for Faculties Billy Soo, Intersections Program Director Burt Howell, and Associate Dean for the Core Curriculum Brian Gareau.

“In addition to faculty, we hope to have special guests who would be an additional draw, with the goal of getting as many BC community members and friends engaged as possible, and to keep our viewers coming back,” said Fr. Keenan.

Four years ago, Fr. Keenan had written about the importance of accompaniment in Jesuit Magazine. “We make it our mission to accompany them on their journey, to literally meet them where they are, offering compassion, respect and companionship that transcend physical or spiritual needs,” he wrote in the introduction to the issue titled “A Spirituality of Accompaniment.” “We form communities and relationships at the heart of our mission.”

Chronicle

May 21, 2020

9

Aquino Scholar Sees Future as Battling Injustice Urwa Hameed, a pre-law Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences student majoring in political science and international studies who spent last summer studying abroad in one of Europe’s oldest conflict zones, has been awarded the 2020 Benigno and Corazon Aquino Scholarship.

Presented to a junior each spring, the scholarship recognizes strong academic record, active engagement in Asian American issues, and service both on and off campus to the Asian American community.

“This award is a reaffirmation of my passion and strengthens my zeal for advocating for the rights of the Asian Americans both at Boston College and in the larger community,” Hameed said. “I hope to attend law school after graduation so I am better equipped to analyze, understand, and reform the current institutional injustices against minorities in the United States.”

The Aquino Scholarship presentation, which took place online, included remarks

by University President William P. Leahy, S.J. “I was overwhelmed with gratitude when Fr. Leahy announced my name as the winner. I wish the ceremony could have been [held] in person, but it truly was the highlight of my year, and I look forward to meeting the committee members when we return to campus,” Hameed said.

Through a McGillycuddy-Logue Travel and Research Grant, Hameed—who has a concentration in conflict and cooperation—studied the Philosophy of Peace and Hospitality in Croatia and its neighboring countries, at the crossroads between the political and religious systems of the East and West.

Aquino Scholarship winner Urwa Hameed says her study in Croatia proved to be an invaluable part of her Boston College experience.

“This trip taught me how to gauge my attention and understanding of sensitive events with contrasting perspectives.”

“We spent almost a month traveling, studying, and meeting different individuals; each had a personal connection with the siege in Sarajevo and held contrasting opinions about the war,” she said. “We visited war memorials, listened to the stories of war survivors, and spent time in a warehouse where prisoners of war were kept under horrible conditions.

“This unique experience can never be translated with books, words or lectures, as the site itself had a major impact on us,”

she added. “This trip taught me how to gauge my attention and understanding of sensitive events with contrasting perspectives.”

Admitted as a member of the class of 2022, Hameed is on track for early graduation and is a candidate for the BC Law 3+3 Program. A UGBC senator, she serves as vice president of the Parliamentary Debating Union of BC, a Stride Lead mentor, and an ambassador for the AHANA Outreach Committee. She is a research assistant for the departments of Philosophy and Political Science. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, she planned to conduct research on the political rights of women in Pakistan this summer.

“I am thankful to God for deeming me worthy of this [scholarship],” Hameed added,”and would like to extend my thanks to all my professors who have been a crucial part of my development, my family for being my support system, and my friends who hold me up every time I am

down.”

Also nominated for the Aquino Scholarship were: Ivan Ip, a Carroll School of Management student pursuing a double concentration in finance and information systems, with minors in applied psychology/human development and computer science. He is BC’s Asian Caucus co-director of service and education and will serve as treasurer during the upcoming academic year. Ip works for EagleTech in O’Neill Library and as a teaching assistant in the Carroll School’s Information Systems Department.

His volunteer work with non-profit organizations includes the Chinese-American Planning Council, United East Athletics Association, and Asian Community Development Corporation.

Branden Lee, a Morrissey College student and child of first-generation immigrants, is a biology major with a concentration in microbiology and hopes to attend both law and medical schools following graduation. A class council president, a mock trial program participant, and director of his own biomedical engineering organization, Lee hopes to combine his fluency in STEM, law, and medicine to improve the lives of others, especially Asian American and Pacific Islanders.

Czar Alexei Sepe, a Morrissey College student majoring in political science and history with a pre-law focus. A campus ambassador for Teach For America and a UGBC senator, Sepe is involved in BC’s Knights of Columbus organization, a vice president of the Learning to Serve club, and is a member of the Jenks Leadership Program student advisory council.

–University Communications

Jorgenson Feted for Work in Environmental Sociology

BY KATHLEEN SULLIVAN STAFF WRITER

Professor and Chair of Sociology Andrew Jorgenson has won the 2020 Fred Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Environmental Sociology for outstanding service, innovation, and publication in the field of environmental sociology.

The award is considered an “expression of appreciation” for an “individual deemed extraordinarily meritorious” by the Section on Environmental Sociology.

“I am deeply honored, and so grateful for my loving family, incredible mentors, generous collaborators, brilliant students, and supportive colleagues—without all of them, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Jorgenson, who is also a professor in the University’s interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Program.

His primary research is on the human dimensions of global environmental change, with a focus on the political-economic drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, industrial pollution, and land cover change.

He also conducts research on the political-

economic and environmental conditions that shape population health outcomes, uneven development, income inequality, and environmental concern.

He is co-author of the forthcoming book Super Polluters: Tackling the World’s Largest Sites of Climate-Disrupting Emissions, based on National Science Foundation-funded research he conducted with co-authors Don Grant of the University of Colorado-Boulder and Wesley Longhofer of Emory University on carbon pollution caused by the generation of electricity. The researchers analyzed data on the carbon dioxide emissions of thousands of fossil-fueled power plants in more than 150 countries.

Nearly 20 people, including colleagues and current and former Ph.D. students, nominated Jorgenson for the Fred Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award.

“One of the country’s leading environA colleague calls Professor of Sociology mental sociologists, Andrew has an extraor- Andrew Jorgenson “one of the country’s dinary record of accomplishment,” said leading environmental sociologists” who Professor of Sociology Juliet Schor, one of has “an extraordinary record of accomplishJorgenson’s nominators. “He has made imment.” photo by lee pellegrini portant contributions in quite a few areas, from climate change to development to international trade. He developed a measure achieve a given level of well-being. Here on of how much carbon a country burns to campus, Andrew is an exemplary teacher

and mentor who co-authors many of his papers with students. BC is so fortunate that he is a member of our community.”

Jorgenson’s research has appeared in a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals, including the American Journal of Sociology, Nature Climate Change, Social Forces, Environmental Research Letters, Social Problems, Sociological Theory, and Sustainability Science, among many others. He has published more than 110 peer-reviewed journal articles and more than 40 book chapters and other scholarly works, and co-edited five handbooks and edited collections. He also is the founding co-editor of the journal Sociology of Development.

His expertise has been featured in media outlets such as NBC News, The Washington Post, Scientific American, and National Public Radio, among others.

Jorgenson earned a doctorate from the University of California-Riverside in 2004 and has been on the faculty at Boston College since 2015. He previously taught at the University of Utah, North Carolina State University, and Washington State University.

Chronicle

10

Excellence in Teaching Day Features Timely Topic: Resilience

BY ED HAYWARD STAFF WRITER

Excellence in Teaching Day, a highly anticipated annual gathering hosted by the Center for Teaching Excellence, moved into a virtual space this year. Nearly 200 faculty and staff enrolled to watch keynote speaker Rhonda Magee, a nationally recognized authority on mindfulness and racial justice, present “The Inner Work of Teaching and Learning for All” on May 15 via Zoom.

The University of San Francisco law professor’s talk focused on resilience, an appropriate theme given the shift by schools, colleges, and universities to remote learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Center for Teaching Excellence Interim Director Stacy Grooters said the decision was made to continue with the keynote talk by Magee, while eliminating the breakout sessions that are part of the traditional event.

“We hope this adds to a sense of normalcy by giving us a chance to be in community with our colleagues, who we may not have seen or spoken to for several weeks,” Grooters said.

Though selected months earlier, the topic of “re-envisioning resilience” could not be more on point at the close of a tumultuous semester that required students, faculty,

and staff to make many adjustments. As one indication of how dramatically the University had to shift gears: prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the institution had approximately 250 licenses for the video conferencing application Zoom. Post-outbreak, it now has 22,500, said Grooters. “[Magee’s] message is a needed one right now and so we decided it made sense to go ahead with her keynote,” said Grooters. “Our faculty are excellent teachers and though they are teaching in a different context now, the heart of their work remains the same. What are my students learning?

How can I help them learn? Now they are challenged to think more creatively in this new mode.”

The original idea was to focus on ways that classroom teaching at the university level can help foster in students the qualities of tenacity or persistence, Grooters said, or respond to a broader set of challenges from economic, social, and political conditions. Now, after the sudden shift to remote learning and the near-total closing of the campus, resilience is something faculty and staff must summon routinely.

“Our hope is that [Magee] gave faculty some tools for their own self-care in this moment so they can support their own and their students’ resilience in this time,” Grooters said.

photo courtesy bc dining services

In addition to safely serving few hundred students who remained on campus this spring, Boston College Dining Services has helped to feed people in need during the coronavirus pandemic—an opportunity that can come along unexpectedly, according to Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services Patricia Bando.

“Out of the blue, I received a call from a food manufacturer representative, Michael Joseph, the national account culinary manager of Rich Products in Buffalo,” explained Bando. “He had an offer that we found too good to refuse: free products that have a three-month shelf life and needed to be moved out of their warehouse as a donation that could be put to good use.”

BCDS, which typically serves more than 22,000 meals per day, jumped at the chance to utilize their talents to help the community during this time of crisis.

The 125 cases of barbeque pulled pork and 150 cases of breads and rolls were used to prepare sandwiches, and the 75 cases of

sweet buns and cookies were baked and packaged for delivery.

Vice President for Governmental and Community Affairs Thomas Keady and Director of Government Relations Jeanne Levesque found organizations within the Greater Boston area that needed food donations, including the YMCA on Huntington Avenue, the Grant Manor Food Pantry in Roxbury, and the Boston Public Health Shelter System.

In addition to the donation from Rich Products, BCDS also received 1,080 pounds of Cabot Greek yogurt which was provided to the Food4Vets program at Gillette Stadium by Amazon. Massachusetts nonprofits Food Link and Boston Area Gleaners delivered the perishable food to campus, and BCDS used it to prepare 2,664 individual yogurt parfaits with fruit and granola.

“We are so happy that in our small way we can help so many others during this crisis,” said Bando.

—Christine Balquist

May 21, 2020

OBITUARIES James McGahay ’63, whose meticulously crafted citations extolled Boston College honorary degree recipients such as George H. W. Bush, Maya Angelou, Corazon Aquino, and Seamus Heaney, died on April 21. He was 78.

Mr. McGahay worked at the University for 32 years in several positions, including as associate director of the Alumni Association, acting director of public relations, and senior writer in the Development Office. But his signature contribution to BC was an uncredited one: Every year, for a quarter-century, he composed the honorary degree citations read at Commencement Exercises, and printed in the Commencement program— eloquent, lyrical, richly detailed passages that praised the lives and achievements of the honorees.

Although Mr. McGahay was never listed as the author of the citations, he left a legacy of stirring, gracious tributes flavored with history, politics, and science as well as literature, poetry, and other modes of artistic expression.

For Heaney, a future Nobel Prize winner, Mr. McGahay wrote in 1991: “Your poetry, luminous with a universality of experience that is profoundly Irish, reflects

the shape of life as you know it to be, a fusion of history and the land, and reaches beyond the giving of pleasure and insight to confer the gift of fortitude, to help us endure.”

Reviewing the career of then-Vice President Bush, who was honored at the 1982 Commencement, Mr. McGahay pointed to his service as first chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in the People’s Republic of China: “Your efforts in Peking echo the deeds of earlier sons of New England who opened China and its culture to America. In the language of the Chinese, the word for ‘doctor’ evolved to include in its meaning the scholar who would also become an official..”

In a 2000 Boston College Chronicle interview—which amounted to his grand reveal as citations author—Mr. McGahay discussed the experience of serving as what he called “the voice of the University.”

“You have to find a peg,” he said.

“There’s something interesting about every person you encounter. I look for things that catch my eye, that capture the personality and individuality of the person. I like to look for a smile.”

He is survived by his siblings, Linda K. (McGahay) Callanan and John (Jack) McGahay, and their spouses, children, and grandchildren. A private family memorial has been planned.

—University Communications Read the full obituary at: http://bit.ly/mcgahay-obituary

Patrick F. Cadigan ’57, a grateful alumnus of Jesuit education and namesake of the University’s alumni center, died on April 23. He was 85.

A California real estate investor and one-time high-tech CEO, Mr. Cadigan made a $15 million pledge to BC in 2012 to name the then-new facility at 2121 Commonwealth Avenue, reconstructed from the former Chancery of the Archdiocese of Boston.

The Cadigan Alumni Center houses the University’s fundraising, alumni relations and parent relations offices, while also serving as a home-away-from-home for Boston College’s 182,000 alumni. The center has been the site for numerous volunteer meetings, seminars, alumni events, and parent receptions.

Mr. Cadigan also made a $12 million pledge to Boston College High School, from which he graduated in 1952—the largest donation in the school’s history and the largest ever received by a Catholic secondary school in New England. Through Mr. Cadigan’s gift, BC High built Cadigan Hall, a new center for arts and recreation.

Mr. Cadigan cited the discipline and moral training of his Jesuit teachers as the factors that helped him—the son of Irish immigrants who worked part-time at his father’s bar in Cambridge to help pay for

his education—to become one of Southern California’s most successful high-tech leaders and real estate investors.

“My education at Boston College was a great experience that taught me the importance of hard work, and instilled in me values and discipline that stayed with me throughout my years,” he said in a statement announcing his pledge to BC. “The foundation I received left an indelible impression on me, and prepared me for success in business and in life.”

After graduating from Boston College, Mr. Cadigan worked as a product manager at Sylvania Electronic Systems in Waltham for five years before being recruited to the West Coast to oversee sales and marketing for Electronic Engineering Company of California. He rose rapidly to become its president and CEO, running the company for nearly 20 years, and expanding it both nationally and internationally. Mr. Cadigan also invested in real estate in Orange County for 40 years, a sideline that became his primary focus upon his retirement from the high-tech business world.

“Pat Cadigan moved out west as a young man, but never forgot his Boston roots and his affection for Boston College,” said University President Willam P. Leahy, S.J., at the time Mr. Cadigan’s gift was announced. “We are grateful for his generous support and delighted to have our new alumni center bear his name.”

–University Communications Read the full obituary at: http://bit.ly/patrick-cadigan-obituary

Chronicle

May 21, 2020

For Some, a Time to Retire An academic year already made memorable by the coronavirus crisis has concluded with the retirement of some major figures among Boston College’s administrators, faculty, and staff members.

Among those retiring during 2019-20 are Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor Audrey Friedman, whose honors include CASE Professor of the Year and BC Alpha Sigma Nu Teacher of the Year; Professor of Chemistry Paul Davidovits, a pioneering researcher in the study of heterogeneous gas-liquid interaction; Connell School of Nursing Associate Professor Catherine Read, a former associate dean and founder of the KILN program for underrepresented nursing students; and Boston College Law School Associate Professor Francis Herrmann, S.J., who served as a BC trustee and rector of the University’s Jesuit community.

Robert Newton, a special assistant and senior advisor to the president, came to BC in 1980 as associate dean of faculties. He has played a leadership role in key University initiatives, including regional accreditation and NCAA certification processes, four Universitywide planning efforts, the 1990 revision of the Boston College Core Curriculum, establishment of the School of Theology and Ministry, development of the University’s comprehensive assessment plan, and creation of the Church in the 21st Century Center and C21 Online.

“After four decades as a more than casual observer and active participant in the passing scene,” he said, “the mega-theme of these 40 years for me has been the consolidation of Boston College on a visionary collegiate foundation drawn from Jesuit Newton educational and spiritual traditions, guided by two outstanding presidents, each committed to the mission and a person for his own time.

I have been privileged to enjoy their trust and confidence as BC’s journeyed across the millennia into a new understanding of ‘Ever to excel.’”

Carroll School of Management Professor Mary Cronin—who developed and taught BC’s first courses on Internet business and e-commerce strategy and more recently a new course on Managing for Social Impact and the Public Good, now a University-wide He’s not a Boston College administrator, but another retiree of note for the University community is Saint Columbkille Partnership School Head of School William Gartside Ph.D. ’12, who has been invaluable in the University’s decadeand-a-half collaboration with STCPS and the Boston Archdiocese to create a flagship Catholic school in Boston.

During Gartside’s 10-year tenure, Saint Columbkille broadened its ties with BC, which provided financial and technical

interdisciplinary minor—is equally acclaimed for her achievements as University Librarian.

Her term of 1986-95 saw the expansion of the library’s research collection and digital resources, while her own pioneering research focused on the impact of electronic networks on scholarship and business; in 1994, she published Doing Business on the Internet, the first popular book on Internet business.

Cronin “Looking back over three-plus decades of teaching, research, writing, and administration, I am so grateful for the opportunities and support that Boston College provided to experiment, innovate, and implement new programs, and brimming with admiration for the stellar colleagues and students who made those programs a success. To bring the story full circle, I am now teaching a new course in Digital Commerce, this time for the online summer session at the Woods College.”

BC School of Social Work Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Academic Affairs Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, who earned her master’s degree at the school and returned in 1999 as a faculty member, co-founded the BCSSW Center for Social Innovation and established the Social Innovation Lab to support non-profit organizations. She also headed the school’s doctoral program, and directed the Center on Aging and Work and the Center for Work and Family. As a researcher, she is an internationally respected authority in the study of employment experiences of vulnerable populations.

“I have found great joy in many of my roles at BC,” Pitt-Catsouphes said. “My work supporting doctoral students has been incredibly rewarding. I am fortunate to have maintained relationships with many former students who have already become leaders in social science research. In addition, I am proud that colleagues and students who worked at the Center on Aging and Work contributed to an expanded focus on Pitt-Catsouphes the quality of employment available to older adults before as well as during their transitions to retirement. support. The Lynch School of Education and Human Development supplied a steady stream of student teachers, giving STCPS teachers an opportunity to earn master’s degree at no cost, and assisting with upgrades to curriculum and support services. In 2018, STCPS was formally designated as a laboratory school for the Lynch School, enhancing opportunities for teacher training, educational research, and professional development.

“The past 10 years have been the best in my professional career,” said Gartside.

“Thank you, Boston College, for all you have done to help Saint Columbkille Partnership School become the excellent school that it has become.”

—Phil Gloudemans

“I view BC as a mission-driven organization which has an explicit commitment to social justice. I can’t imagine a more supportive organizational context for academics who focus on issues of equity and fairness.”

James Bernauer, S.J., joined the Philosophy Department in 1980 and has directed the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning since 2008; he was named Kraft Family Professor in 2009. His research and teaching interests include Jesuits and Jews during the period of the Holocaust.

“Looking ahead to what I trust will be my most intense period of spiritual and intellectual growth, I am grateful that these 40 years at Boston College have prepared me to flourish in that new age. Blessed by an abundance of personal communities—Jesuits, colleagues, staff members, students, so many people of powerful minds and gracious spirits— this ‘Heights’ pilgrim was able to enjoy a beautiful campus but was not confined to a Fr. Bernauer sheltered life on it.”

Other retirees include: Clough Millennium Professor of History James O’Toole, an expert on the history of American religion and the history of American Catholicism; Connell School Associate Professor Pamela Grace, a nurse scientist and nursing ethics researcher; Lynch School Professor Maria Brisk, an expert on literacy and bilingualism; Professor of Physics Baldassare Di Bartolo, who joined the University in 1968; Connell School Clinical Associate Professor William Fehder, a nurse anesthetist; Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Rudolph Hon, a researcher in solid earth and environmental chemistry; Associate Professor of Theatre John Houchin, a director and playwright; Professor of Biology Daniel Kirschner, whose research interests include structural biochemistry and neurology; BCSSW Professor Paul Kline, who has studied the long-term impact of clergy sexual abuse on survivors, families, and faith communities; and Carroll School Professor Jeffrey Ringuest, who held leadership positions in the school’s graduate education program.

Also, Carroll School Professor Hossein Safizadeh, who taught and researched operations and strategic management; Carroll School Professor and BC faculty athletics representative Robert Taggart, whose expertise includes corporate finance and financial institution asset management; Associate Professor of English Laurence (Lad) Tobin, inaugural director of BC’s Freshman/First Year Writing Seminar; and Professor of English Christopher Wilson, a specialist in American print culture and representations of crime and police power.

Barbara Mento joined the University in 1981 as a business librarian in the School of Management Library, eventually becoming data/GIS librarian and senior bibliographer for economics, computer science, and mathematics.

“As a librarian I experienced the dramatic impact technology has had on my profession and academic research at Boston College,” she said. “Materials migrated from print to microform to CDs to full online access to text and data, and now include images, video, and audio. Every level of researcher, including undergraduates, has access today to a worldwide scope of materials easily downloaded to their

11

desktop. It’s quite remarkable.”

Men’s soccer coach Ed Kelly, whose 281 wins rank him first on BC’s all-time list, is retiring, along with administrators Donna Bennett (Sports Medicine), Rebecca Berry (Information Technology Services), Rosalind Cooper Wyman (O’Neill Library), William Crowley (Lynch School), Sonia Ensins (O’Neill Library), Steven Hatch (Information Technology Services, middleware and architecture), Robert Loughlin (Controller’s Office), Halley McLain (Human Resources), Kim Principi (Robsham Theater Arts Center), and David Webb (Institute for Scientific Research).

Gloria Rufo, who after temping for several months began working full-time at BC in 1989, left the University during the winter.

She worked as an administrative assistant in the Development Office, and the Theology and Psychology departments.

“Whatever else may have changed, the quality of people at BC was always fantastic,” she said. “Certainly, the faculty are top-notch: The research that’s been done over the years has gotten better and better. I was always impressed with the Theology Department, because it seemed to the center of what BC was all about, where you could learn not just about Catholicism but other religions. Most of all, the friendliness of the faculty, and their attention to students, was something that stood out to me.”

Other retiring employees include Paul Gallivan (Athletic Maintenance), James Hamilton (Central Heating), Michael Lennon (Athletic Maintenance), Blanca Mejia (Custodial), Stephen Mitchell (Central Heating), Margaret Bakalo (Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences), Barbara Burdick (Carroll School), Jane Costello (Computer Science), Euphemia DeVincentis (Auxiliary Services), Rosemary Eleuteri (Stewardship and Donor Engagement), Joanne Elliott (Art, Art History, Film), Gail Lefebvre (O’Neill Library), Colleen O’Reilly (History), and Gail Sullivan (Economics).

—University Communications photos by lee pellegrini and gary wayne gilbert

25-Year Employees The following administrators, faculty, and staff marked 25 years of employment at Boston College during 2019-20: Patricia Bando, Theresa Barba, Brian Bernier, Kerry Cronin, Brian David, Donna DeRosa, James DiLoreto, Kathryn Doan, Amy Donegan, Patricia Donellan, John Gordon, Linda McCarthy, Elizabeth McLain, John McLaughlin, Daniel Ponsetto, Cristin Foley Richard, Gillian Rolfsen, Elizabeth Rosselot, Lavette Scott-Smith, Giuseppina Sullivan, and Thomas Walsh.

Also, Abdelhak Aslane, Roy Farrell, Glyn Lazare, Sandra Pedraza, Roisin Reilly, Sharon Beckman, Kevin Bedell, Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Scott Cummings, H. Kent Greenfield, Andrea McColgan Javel, Ruth Langer, C. Lynn Lyerly, Brian O’Connor, Michael K. Russell, Evangeline Sarda, Robert Stanton, Catharine Wells, Michael Bercovitz, Kevin Christopher, Carmen Cruz, Maria Darosa, Curtis Finkley, and Ricardo Madrid.

Also, Richard Newton, Ercilia Nunes, Santos Perez, James Ruth, Lidia Valdez, Frederick Vautour, James Vizakis, Maria Alvarez, Lauren McGrath, Joyce Taylor, and Joseph Herlihy.

Chronicle

12

May 21, 2020

Reimagined Virtually, Arts Festival a Success

BY ROSANNE PELLEGRINI STAFF WRITER

Arts Festival. The BC Arts Council, which organizes the festival, put out a call early in For more than two decades, the Boston April to campus arts groups and students College Arts Festival has been a popular registered to participate, resulting in submisand highly anticipated rite of spring on sions of a wide array of imaginative content. campus. But this year, the coronavirus panThe theme for the 2020 festival, which demic necessitated some extra creativity on took place online April 23-25, was—approthe part of both festival organizers and par- priately enough—“Ignite Creativity.” ticipants, and the result was the first virtual Through the Arts Festival website, the Arts Council’s Instagram and Facebook accounts, and the newly launched BC Arts Journal, virtual attendees were able to experience a range of creative expression by the BC groups, individuals, and classes that continued to create and connect through social distancing.

The festival included recordings of campus dance troupes, and a cappella and other musiUPrising (shown in a 2019 photo) was among the performers that cal groups; visual arts appeared in last month’s virtual Arts Festival. photo by anna sasena ’20 highlights of paintings, drawings, photography, Arts Festival. film, and more; excerpts from “City of AnSome 2,000 members of the University gels,” which had been scheduled to be percommunity typically participate in the formed at Robsham Theater Arts Center that festival, which highlights music, theater, month; readings of fairy tales for children, dance, poetry, film, painting, and sculpand presentations from student works of ficture, and the work of students, faculty, and tion and non-fiction, among other features. others at BC. Residents of all ages from the Attendees also were invited to color—with Boston area attend many festival events. physical or digital crayons—downloadThe suspension of on-campus classes able pages created by Arts Council member and the departure of most students in mid- Emma Hardy ’20. [The schedule can be March prompted a change in plans for the viewed at the festival website, http://www.

bc.edu/artsfestival.]

This year’s Student Art Award winners also were featured during the festival: Conor Ancharski ’20; Jorge (Nico) Borbolla ’21; Marissa Caraballo ’20; Megan Ellis ’20; Anabel Johnson ’20; Darius Russell Kish ’21; Daniel Saillant ’20; Gabriel Valle ’20; Ziyang Xiang ’20, and Ariel Lynch ’20, who received the Jeffery Howe Art History Award. The BC Arts Journal ran profiles on the winners, available at www. bcartsjournal.com/journal?tag=arts%20 festival.

Both the faculty award and annual Boston College Arts Council Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement Alumni were postponed until 2021.

interviews, and activities and presenting a robust array of arts in multiple virtual formats for the world to see,” said Arts Council Chair Crystal Tiala, associate professor and chair of the Theatre Department. “It was a Herculean effort in a short amount of time. Yet it reminds us all that we are still here, still creating, still in this together no matter how far apart we may be. Human innovation and creativity will always thrive no matter what the obstacles.”

Organized by the Arts Council, BC Arts Festival sponsors include the offices of the President and the Provost, the Arts Council committees, Student Affairs and the Dean’s Office of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, with support from the Alumni Association, the Boston College Police

The virtual Arts Festival included displays of student art and photography, including “Poppies for Peace,” a large-scale art installation proposal by Isabel Hall ’21.

“[Arts Council Program Director and Arts Festival Director] Tatiana Flis and the BC student Arts Council staff did an amazing job pulling together videos, photos,

Department, the Boston College Bookstore, and the numerous BC Facilities and grounds crew members.

Despite Coronavirus Obstacles, BC Relay for Life Goes On

BY CHRISTINE BALQUIST STAFF WRITER

The Boston College Relay for Life, a popular campus happening for more than a decade and a major source of support for the American Cancer Society, took place in virtual form on April 17.

Participants in Relay for Life raise funds by pledging to walk laps at the annual 12-hour event, which also includes live entertainment and testimonials from cancer survivors and loved ones. Relay for Life co-presidents Chloe Witt ’21, Makayla Lourenco ’20, and Tommy Cleary ’20 had spent the past year preparing for the marathon, which for the first time was to be held in the Margot Connell Recreation Center after the demolition of its former venue, the Flynn Recreation Complex.

Lourenco said there had been great anticipation about holding Relay in the new recreation center. “We were really excited to change aspects of the event to accommodate the new space. One thing in particular we liked was that the building has windows. Relay for Life uses the sun to symbolize a cancer patient’s journey—the setting sun resembles the diagnosis, whereas the rising sun symbolizes hope. Howev-

er, the Rec Plex did not have windows, so while we still used the sun as a symbol, we never saw it set or rise. This year would’ve been quite different.”

But once the coronavirus forced the University to suspend on-campus classes and shut down residence halls, and state directives prohibited large gatherings, the organizers worked to create to a virtual replacement.

The key elements of a Relay for Life event were shared on social media, including talks by cancer survivors and a Luminaria ceremony to honor those who have been affected by cancer. Relay for Life leaders also encouraged participants to walk 37,000 steps during the weekend in support of the 37,000 people who will be diagnosed with cancer this year in Massachusetts.

American Cancer Society Community Development Manager Amanda Visco praised the co-presidents’ efforts. “They made sure the virtual event had all the aspects of an in-person Relay, giving participants a chance to celebrate cancer survivors, honor those lost to cancer, and come together to work toward a common goal.

I am grateful to be able to work with students so dedicated to the American Cancer

A participant in the virtual Boston College Relay for Life proclaimed her enthusiasm for the event.

Society’s mission.”

The co-leaders admitted that they were unsure how the virtual format would convey the sentiment and community feel typical to a Relay for Life, but were pleasantly surprised with the results.

“I was a little skeptical, to be completely

honest,” said Lourenco. “But we got a lot of views on social media and everyone really liked it, even if it did not compare to the magic of an in-person event.”

One positive effect of the digital format, noted the co-presidents, was that friends and family members who typically could not attend an on-campus event were able to tune in and participate.

BC Relay for Life raised $47,257 for the American Cancer Society over the course of the year, and $3,000 during the virtual relay. Although these funds are less than last year’s total, the team is still proud of what they were able to accomplish.

“It’s hard to ask for money during this time we are in, when people are struggling,” said Cleary. “I’m still proud of what we did and I’m proud of the BC community.”

“We were able to bring part of the spirit of Relay for Life online and remember the ones we have lost,” said Witt. “The event was different, but I still had those feelings of happiness, gratitude, and sadness throughout the event. Cancer, like COVID-19, affects all of us.”

Donations can be made to http://RelayForLife.org/BC.