The Boston College
Chronicle Published by the Boston College Office of News & Public Affairs september 29, 2016 VOL. 24 no. 3
INSIDE introduces 2 •BCDS Menus of Change •BC hosts screening of biopic of Jesuit founder to perform 3 •Chenoweth at Pops on the Heights
Political Leadership Is Topic of Council for Women Forum By Kathleen Sullivan Staff Writer
Political leadership and women in Washington are the focus of the second annual Council for Women of Boston College Colloquium, which takes place Oct. 6 in Robsham Theater. The event, which begins at 6
p.m., will feature Democratic National Committee Interim Chair Donna Brazile and former Republican presidential advisor Mary Matalin, who will draw upon a combined 50 years of experience in politics to discuss the 2016 election, politics, leadership and women. Their conversation, titled “Women Continued on page 6
New Round of Core Pilot Courses Make Debut
•Conference will fete Fr. Hollenbach
By Sean Smith Chronicle Editor
•BCSSW-United Way sponsor IF Challenge •USPI town halls tough for 5 •Compromise men, says Nikolova
The Boston College community celebrated the start of Hispanic Heritage Month last Friday on the Plaza at O’Neill Library, one of numerous recent campus events. See page 8. (Photo by Christopher Huang)
6 •Memoir recalls life
and times of ‘Mr. BC’
Different Animals Democrats, GOP aren’t mirror images, says Hopkins
Additions’; 7 •’Welcome BC in the Media; BC Briefings; Jobs
•Obituary: Sociologist Ritchie Lowry Wilner is new 8 •Sheri Monan Professor
CWBC Colloquium speakers Donna Brazile, left, and Mary Matalin
Assistant Professor of Political Science David A. Hopkins is the co-author of a new book out just in time for the 2016 election. Asymmetric Politics: Ideological Republicans and Group Interest Democrats, which Hopkins wrote with Michigan State University political scientist Matt Grossmann, takes a look at how the Republican and Democratic Parties think differently about politics, how they approach government, and how this asymmetry led to the rise of Donald Trump. Hopkins spoke recently with Chronicle’s Sean Hennessey; the discussion has been edited for space and clarity. For the full interview, see http://bit. ly/2cAJVA5 Chronicle: Your book’s title spells out how you see the Re-
publican Party being a vehicle of an ideological movement, while the Democratic Party is a coalition of social groups. Talk a little bit about that. Hopkins: The point of the book is that rather than thinking of the two major parties in America as mirror images of each other, we should think of them as two different types of parties. That means their sources of popular support, the goals of their activist populations, and the behavior of their politicians are all different. On the Republican side, the GOP has been, for most of the past century, the agent of a conservative ideological movement. The vast majority of Republican office-holders, activists, and voters consider themselves to be conserContinued on page 5
EARLY CLOSING OCT. 7
New courses in the Boston College undergraduate core curriculum provide students opportunities to examine climate change from both moral and scientific perspectives, discuss how innovative thinking in the business and arts communities might solve complex problems, and explore the biological basis of epidemics and disease and their socioeconomic ramifications. These interdisciplinary courses – intended for freshmen – are among a cohort debuting during 2016-17 in a three-year pilot program that is the leading edge of BC’s broad-based initiative to renew its core curriculum. [See http://bit.ly/2couuWP] The core pilot program, which began last year, has spurred a host of imaginative faculty collaborations, some representing seemingly unlikely combinations of disciplines, among them theater and political science, chemistry and English, theology and earth and environmental sciences, and nursing and English. Leaders of the four-year-old core renewal effort note that participating faculty and students alike have expressed overwhelmingly positive views about the pilot program and its impact – a promising sign for the next round of new courses next academic year, as well as the next phase of core renewal implementation. “Students of this generation learn in different ways than those of 10 to 15 years ago,” said Julian Bourg, as-
sociate dean for the core in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences and chair of the University Core Renewal Committee (UCRC). “What we’ve found is that they can handle a lot, they can think complexly, they’re quick to put things together, and – perhaps most importantly – they’re really looking for community and a sense of groundedness. And these are elements we feel are key to the core renewal. “We’re still in the experimental phase, and hopefully by next September we will have a plan for a sustainable, post-pilot core. The idea behind the pilot program is to start small, build on strengths and remove the rough spots.” “The question for the pilot program is, ‘How big can this get?’” said Institute for the Liberal Arts Director Mary Crane, another UCRC member. “The number of seats for pilot core courses doubled over last year, and course enrollment nearly did the same. More than 40 faculty members from three schools will be involved in the program over two years. Based on what we’ve seen, there is every reason to believe the program can continue to grow in year three.” Eight pilot courses debuted last fall: two in the “Complex Problems” model, team-taught, six-credit classes of around 80 students that address a contemporary problem; and six pairs of linked classes in the “Enduring Questions” category, distinct threecredit classes taken by the same 19 Continued on page 4
On Friday, Oct. 7, Boston College will play a nationally televised football game beginning at 7:30 p.m. All University administrative offices will close at 3:30 p.m. that day in preparation for this event. To ease potential traffic and parking congestion, the University asks that all vehicles be removed from campus as close to 3:30 p.m. as possible.