UGBC Approves 2010-2011 Budget

See the Undergraduate Government of Boston College’s (UGBC’s) proposed budget, as it was presented on Sept. 8, 2010.

Note: The budge’s $63,021 discretionary fund has since been divided into three line items: financial withholdings ($21,505), University speakers ($12,300), and traditional discretionary funds ($29,216).

View the budget here: UGBC Budget 2010-2011

Students attend volunteer fair

By Kristopher Robinson

Heights Editor

As business suit-clad students flocked to Conte Forum Saturday, a slightly different crowd gathered in the basement of Lyons Hall. Those gathering in Conte Forum fought to arrange paying jobs. Those gathering in Lyons Hall vied to work for free.

The Rat hosted for the annual Volunteer Fair Tuesday night, an event dedicated to showcasing the various opportunities for volunteering that Boston College has to offer.

Co-sponsored by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) and the Volunteer and Service Learning Center (VSLC), the fair featured groups stationed both on-campus and off.

Tables of fliers, pamphlets, and posters represented each organization. Options for students to perform service ranged from fundraisers and service trips that occur once annually, such as the Dance Marathon, which raises money for the West End House Boys and Girls Club, and the variety of immersion trips offered by the Lynch School of Education (LSOE) to full-year commitments, such as the 4Boston program.

Robin Watts, A&S ’12, attended the Volunteer Fair for the first time since she came to BC as a freshman. Like other students in attendance, she came to the event with the intention of finding out how she could get more involved in service.

Watts said she sought out the event because of her experience in PULSE.. “Last year I did PULSE, and now that I’m done with it, I’m feeling an absence of community service in my life,” she said.

One organization that appealed to her was Big Brothers / Big Sisters. “I already have my application filled out for it,” Watts said.Watts said she felt torn between the many groups present. “It’s not intimidating; I just feel bad because I can’t sign up for everything.”

In addition to stopping by the VSLC and asking for their assistance in finding volunteer opportunities, students can also take advantage of the bi-weekly e-mails sent out by the Eagle Volunteer Corps (EVC), which provide updates throughout the year.

Hispanic Heritage Month Begins

Taylour Kumpf / Heights Editor

By Michael Caprio

News Editor

Hispanic Heritage Month was kicked off yesterday at a festival held in O’Neill Plaza that featured dancing performances, the vending of traditional Latin American food, and Baldwin wearing in a sombrero.

Pick up a copy of The Heights or visit bcheights.com for continuing coverage of Hispanic Heritage Month events.

BC Improves in U.S. News and World Report Rankings

By Michael Caprio

News Editor

The University placed 31 in this year’s U.S. News and World Report ranking of best national universities, moving three places from its previous spot of 34.

Boston College also ranked in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” ranking, claiming the 43rd spot.  The Carroll School of Management also improved its ranking from 25 to 23 this year in the “Best Business Schools” survey.

To view the full rankings, visit www.usnews.com. The print version of the rankings will be available on August 24.

BC Places in the Top Ten in “LGBT-Unfriendly” and “Little Race/Class Interaction” Rankings

By Michael Caprio

News Editor

The University placed 10th in a ranking of “LGBT-unfriendly” schools released last week by The Princeton Review.

The rankings placed Boston College 10th in the “Students pack the stadiums” category, and ninth in the “Little race / class interaction” category. In 2009, the University ranked 17th in “Little race / class interaction.”

This year marks BC’s return to The Princeton Review’s ranking of “LGBT-unfriendly” schools after a 4 year hiatus. The University appeared on the ranking (formerly named “Alternative lifestyle not an alternative”) for five consecutive years from 2000 to 2005, ranking second, second, fifth, 14th, and fifth, respectively. The University was absent from the list starting in 2006 until its recent reappearance.

To view the complete rankings, visit http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings.aspx

Garvey to leave after 11 years as BC Law dean

Courtesy of the Office of News and Public Affairs

By Ana T. Lopez

Special Projects Editor

Though his primary passion is undeniably the world of higher education and all associated with it, John Garvey, soon to be the former dean of the Boston College Law School, did not always envision himself as a dean. “I didn’t really have an interest in being a dean as an abstract matter,” Garvey said. “The glory of it is not great enough to make it worth while and I love being a teacher. But being the dean of a law school as prominent as BC is something that I thought was worth giving up teaching and writing books.”

Approached during the school’s dean search in the early ’90s, Garvey declined the position originally, choosing to finish projects he has started as a professor at the University of Kentucky. “At the time I said no, but it was always in the back of my mind,” he said. So, when Aviam Soifer stepped down as dean in 1999 and Garvey was once again offered the opportunity, he came to BC.

When Garvey leaves this week after spending 11 years on the Newton Campus to assume his new position as president of Catholic University, he will leave behind a legacy that explains in part why BC Law is a tier-one, respected law school.

Upon coming to BC, Garvey had set three goals for his tenure. “One was to make us more academically ambitious to improve our scholarly profile in the legal community,” he said. “The second was to raise more money for the law school and the third was to become more conscious of how to fulfill our mission as a Catholic and Jesuit institution within the University.”

In terms of academics, Garvey succeeded in hiring 20 new faculty members, marking a 40 percent turnover in faculty from the late ’90s until now. “They have been almost entirely junior faculty who are just starting their careers or at the very beginning,” he said. “I think they’ve been a wonderful infusion of new ideas and new ambitions for the institution, so I think that has set us on a really good path for the next decade.”

Fundraising has also grown significantly under Garvey’s direction. When BC Law obtained independent fundraising authority nearly 20 years ago – making it the only college within the University to have such power – they began the difficult process of boosting alumni donations and major gifts. Now, following the tenure of deans such as Soifer and Garvey, the fundraising efforts of the school are finally hitting their stride.

“It takes a while to get something like this underway,” Garvey said. “To get your alumni used to the idea of having the responsibility of supporting the school – it’s a process where starting friction is greater than flying friction.”

Garvey said that, early on, fundraising efforts garnered approximately $600,000 annually for the law school. “That’s grown by about 15 percent a year,” he said. “We’re approaching $2 million a year.” The increase in funds means that more money can go into loan repayment for students working public interest jobs as well as scholarships for faculty in the summertime.

“We’re suffering through the recession like everyone else, so this will be a slower year, but I think we’re on our way,” Garvey said, adding that, even with the economic hardship, major gifts to the college have increased over the past decade or so from $1 million annually to over $6 million last year.

Garvey is modest in relaying the achievements of the law school, attributing the funds raised and the reputation of the school to the “wonderful faculty and staff” that support him. “It’s all been a collective effort,” he said.

One of Garvey’s most memorable contributions to the school may be his strong conviction in honoring BC’s Catholic Jesuit tradition in the context of the Law School. “I think it’s a conscious effort that we make in hiring people for the school and speaking with prospective students that this is a law school that has a culture that’s different, on account of its Catholic and Jesuit heritage, than you would find at most other law schools.”

Garvey’s belief in the benefit of what he refers to as “institutional plurality” is so strong that he made it the topic of focus for the entirety of the American Association of Law Schools when he served as the organization’s president a few years ago. “There are many different law schools – not just different places doing the same job – but different programs, which is a good thing for consumers of legal education,” he said.

He added that, of the 200 law schools that are a part of the American Bar Association, more than 40 are religiously affiliated, which affects the topics they wish to focus upon and the way they interpret such topics as they reconcile their study of law with their faith. “At a law school affiliated with the Jesuit order, for example, Catholics have a particular belief in the sanctity of human life. At a school like this you might expect that people will take a different stance on the forms of criminal punishment,” he said.

Garvey said that, by staying connected with the beliefs and values of the Church as a law school, these beliefs and values are imparted on students when they eventually become lawyers. “We invite people to think about their religious faith in the same paragraph that they think about their duties to their clients and community,” he said. “It’s nice to do this type of thing that you couldn’t do at the University of Kentucky, where I taught for many years, because the law frowns upon state schools providing support to religious traditions. But this is a place where that’s meant to be a part of what we do.”

It is this dedication to Catholic education and serving a school with a strong academic foundation that attracted Garvey to the position of president at Catholic University. “The same things that attracted me to BC attracted me to Catholic,” he said. “It’s the national university of the Catholic Church and I can’t imagine leaving this school to be president of just somewhere random.”

Globe follows up on accident involving BC students

By Matthew DeLuca

Editor-in-Chief

When Boston College students in an SUV and a Green Line trolley car collided on the evening of April 24, MBTA officials said they would pursue criminal charges against Jane Stanton, A&S ’13. The case began to attract a firestorm of media attention as it became known that three members of the BC  national champion men’s hockey team were among the vehicle’s occupants. In today’s Globe, columnist Brian McGrory published a piece following up on the situation. He found that the story had taken some interesting turns, including the dropping of the most serious charges against Stanton.

See McGrory’s column here: http://tinyurl.com/22nkldr

See an article published in The Heights on May 3, in which administrators were critical of the reports coming from the MBTA at the time: http://tinyurl.com/374t6tu

Brookline Partiers to be Subject to Fines

By Patrick Gallagher

Assoc. News Editor

Next fall, Brookline residents who host excessively loud parties will be subject to fines by the police, as a result of a resolution that was passed at Wednesday’s annual town meeting.

According to a report by the Boston Globe, the law will allow police to levy a fine of $100 against party hosts and guests after the first incident, with subsequent violations resulting in fines up to $300. In addition, landlords would be held responsible for unruly gatherings under the new law.

Along with imposing fines, police will notify the schools of any students who are found responsible for hosting such parties. The violations will not be classified as criminal offenses, according to the Globe report.

While most BC students living off campus are not located in Brookline, the new law affects tenants living on portions of Beacon Street, Strathmore Road, and the surrounding area.

Rev. Joseph Flanagan, S.J, Founder of PULSE Program, dies at 84

Courtesy of the Office of News and Public Affairs

By Michael Caprio

News Editor

Rev. Joseph Flanagan, S.J., professor in the philosophy department, died Friday in the Jesuit residences at St. Mary’s Hall. He was 84.

Flanagan co-founded the PULSE Program in 1969. He also secured grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to establish the Perspectives Program.

While at Boston College, Flanagan founded and directed the Lonergan Institute, which explores the work of the Jesuit philosopher Bernard Lonergan.

“I don’t know anyone who embodied the spirit of wonder that is at the heart of philosophy as did Joe Flanagan,” said Patrick Byrne, chair of the philosophy department, who while a student worked with Flanagan to develop the Pulse program.  “Fr. Flanagan always thought that philosophy was about transforming the ways we live our lives. He recognized that our encounters with people who had suffered or were in difficult circumstances gave students the greatest opportunity to understand what philosophy had to do with living a full life in a meaningful way.”

Born in West Roxbury, Mass. on the Fourth of July in 1925, Flanagan attended BC High School before joining the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was sent by the Navy to Brown University and then to Washington University Dental School where he earned a doctorate in oral surgery.

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1948 at Shadowbrook Novitiate in Lenox, Mass., and later earned a master’s degree from Boston College, an S.T.L from Weston College and a Ph.D from Fordham University.

Flanagan joined the University faculty in 1963, and served as chair of the philosophy department from 1965-1993 before being named full professor in 1998. He served as director of the Lonergan Institute from 1993 to the present and is the author of the book The Quest of Self-Knowledge: An essay in Understanding Bernard Lonergan’s Philosophy, and dozens of scholarly articles and publications on subjects ranging from epistemology to aesthetics.

Massa to Serve as Dean of STM

By Daniel Tonkovich

For The Heights

Boston College has named Rev. Mark S. Massa, S.J., as the next dean of the University’s School of Theology and Ministry.  Massa is currently the Karl Rahner Professor of Theology and the director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University in New York.  He will succeed Dean Richard Clifford, S.J., who will step down from his post at the end of July.

“The School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College is the most exciting development in American ministerial education to take place in a generation,” Massa said in a recent statement. “One of the most respected faculties of ministerial theology in the United States has joined forces with Boston College’s Institute for Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry to establish a new school at a world-class university. I’m excited and honored to be selected as the next dean of such an important venture.”

Massa is the author of six books with his research focused upon the Catholic experience in the United States since World War II.  In 1994, he received the inaugural award for “Best Teacher in the Humanities” from Fordham College.  He has served on numerous boards including Loyola University’s Board of Trustees from 2008-2010 and the editorial board for the Journal of Catholic Social Thought at Villanova University.

He is also a member of the American Society of Church History, the Catholic Theological Society of America, and the American Studies Association.

Massa holds degrees from the University of Detroit, University of Chicago, the Weston School of Theology, and Harvard University.

University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., said Fr. Massa is a dedicated Jesuit priest and accomplished teacher and scholar, and that he will do much to advance the school of Theology and Ministry. “Fr. Massa brings wisdom and great experience as a theologian to this position,” Leahy said in a statement. “The School of Theology and Ministry will be in good hands with him as dean.”

Massa will begin his deanship during the summer.