ChronicleThe BosTon College

ChronicledeCember 1, 2011 VOL. 20 nO. 7

Published by the Boston College Office of News & Public Affairs

QUOTE:

INSIDE

By Sean Smith ChroniCle editor

Alfonso and Luisa Alvarez share a connection that is rare for most fathers and daughters: They’re both enrolled as students in the same university.

But the familial and colle-gial bonds between Alfonso, a Graduate School of Social Work doctoral student, and Luisa, a Connell School of Nursing ju-nior, have been put to the test this year.

In March, Alfonso — who also holds master’s degrees from GSSW and the Lynch School of Education — and his US Army unit shipped out to Afghanistan. A captain in the Army Medical Service Corps, Alfonso works as a behavioral health officer (BHO) in a combat brigade of about 4,200 soldiers that is currently stationed in the Kandahar Prov-ince.

This meant Alfonso had to miss out this year on Thanksgiv-ing with Luisa, his wife Maria and their younger daughter, Victoria, as well as other relatives. But last week the Needham, Mass., fam-ily got a king-sized helping of good news: Alfonso is expected to be home for 10 days during Christmas.

Alfonso’s stint in the military, which will finish up this com-

•Baldwin at home in Campus School, page 2

•Sportsmanship campaign, page 2

•C21 Online expands, page 2

•BCTalks, page 3

•Heights wins national award, page 3

•Matson wins NEA fellowship, page 4

•Friendship (and food) with IAP, page 5

•Q&A with physicist Willie Padilla, page 5

•Rolling Stones and philosophy, page 6

•Massachusetts legal publishing, page 6

By Sean Smith ChroniCle editor

The numbers were what helped Mark O’Connor decide to leave the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program.

“I was talking to a group of new faculty last year, and said I was ‘priv-ileged to have taught at Boston Col-lege for 35 years,’” said O’Connor, who has been A&S Honors director since 1997. “That number ‘35’ re-ally stood out to me. Then I realized it was also the 30th anniversary of the year I began teaching in the program. I’d been having so much fun, I never noticed how long it had been.

“But I recognized that it was time someone who was the age I once was deserved the chance I once had.”

O’Connor will step down from the A&S Honors Program — one of the oldest such programs in the country — this coming May 31. He will be on sabbatical for the spring

2012 semester, and A&S Dean Da-vid Quigley will serve as the pro-gram’s interim director. O’Connor says he plans to return to teaching at BC next fall.

His decision to step down, says O’Connor, is an opportunity to “re-make” the honors program, which provides about 500 selected under-graduates with a grounding in the classics of Western thought through a rigorous curriculum, small classes,

ing spring, is the latest chapter in what would seem an eventful, rewarding life. Born in Spain, he immigrated to the US in 1988, the same year he married Maria, a Boston native and schoolteacher. After earning a bachelor’s degree in political science from Santa Clara University in California, he took his master’s of education at the Lynch School and taught for a few years.

“While I was teaching, I real-ized that I spent more time help-ing the kids and their families than actually getting my lessons together,” recalled Alfonso in a recent e-mail interview. “I decided then to do it full time.”

Receiving his MSW from GSSW in 2001, Alfonso went on to work as a children, adolescents and families specialist for several non-profit agencies and Massa-chusetts General Hospital, also operating a private practice. He later returned to GSSW to begin pursuing a doctorate.

Then in May of 2009, Alfonso decided to join the Army, and was commissioned as a first lieu-tenant in the Army Reserve as a social worker. He was promoted to captain for active duty service six months later.

“My reasons for joining are many,” he said, “but mostly to give back to the US — my coun-

By ed hayward Staff writer

America’s 65 million Catholics are adjusting to changes in the fa-miliar language of the liturgy of the Mass for the first time in nearly 40 years. Last Sunday, the Catholic Church introduced a new English-language translation of the Ro-man Missal.

The new transla-tion, the first since the Vatican-sanctioned switch from Latin to English was complet-ed in 1973, may take some getting used to for both parishioners and priests, said School of Theology and Ministry Professor John Baldovin, SJ, a noted liturgical historian and theologian.

“The new Missal is an attempt to create a more sacred vocabu-

lary – a language of its own for the liturgy,” said Fr. Baldovin, who has conducted workshops on the Mis-sal for priests and lay people across the country. “The language will be much, much more complex and difficult. Priests will have to spend more time preparing, making ad-

justments for the lan-guage and the way it reads and sounds.”

STM Profes-sor of Theology and Religious Education Thomas Groome said the new, precise trans-lation from the origi-nal Latin introduces new words and alters the structure and ca-dence of sentences

Catholics have been speaking for decades. Those changes in the lit-urgy will require extra attention, particularly from clergy.

Theologians Mull Impact of New Missal on Parishoners

“Priests are going to

have to prepare more

carefully in order to see

ahead of time how the

new translation will

affect the Mass.”

—Thomas Groome

Continued on page 4Continued on page 4

Continued on page 3

Mark O’Connor

Lee

Pelle

grin

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O’Connor to Step Down from A&S Honors Program

Graduate School of Social Work doctoral student Alfonso Alvarez is serving in Afghanistan, while daughter Luisa studies at the Connell School of Nursing.

Lee

Pelle

grin

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They’re Eagles of One FeatherCSON sophomore and her father, thousands of miles apart, still feel connected through BC

“This is unique to Boston College and — I am not over-stating this — it changes lives. The relationships that are formed in this program are for life, and we’ve seen that time and time again.” —Adrienne Nussbaum on the International Assistants Program, page 5

•Holidays at the Heights, page 8

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The BosTon College

ChronicledeCember 1, 2011

DIrEctor of NEWS & PublIc AffAIrS

Jack DunnDEPuty DIrEctor of NEWS

& PublIc AffAIrS

Patricia DelaneyEDItor

Sean SmithcoNtrIbutINg StAff

Melissa Beecher

Ed Hayward

Reid Oslin

Rosanne Pellegrini

Kathleen Sullivan

Michael Maloney

PhotogrAPhErS

Gary Gilbert

Lee Pellegrini

The Boston College Chronicle (USPS 009491), the internal newspaper for faculty and staff, is published biweekly from September to May by Boston Col-lege, with editorial offices at the Office of News & Public Affairs, 14 May-flower Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 (617)552-3350. Distributed free to fac-ulty and staff offices and other locations on campus. Periodicals postage paid at Boston, MA and additional mailing offic-es. POSTMASTER: send address changes to The Boston College Chronicle, Office of News & Public Affairs, 14 Mayflower Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467.

Contact Chronicle via e-mail: chroni-cle@bc.edu.Electronic editions of the Bos-ton College Chronicle are available via the World Wide Web at http://www.bc.edu/chronicle.

The BosTon College

Chronicle

A

R O

U N D C A M P U S

The eagle has landed — at the Campus School.

Vice President and Special As-sistant to the President William Neenan, SJ, recently donated a beautifully carved statue of Bos-ton College mascot Baldwin to the Boston College Campus School. The statue was a gift to Fr. Neenan from his sister, Mary Jo, in honor of the 50th anniversary of his ordination as a Jesuit.

Fr. Neenan was presented with the statue during a visit last sum-mer to Mary Jo in Wisconsin, and it sat in his office for sev-eral months. But then he decided Baldwin had a greater calling.

“I couldn’t think of a better home than the Campus School. I contacted Don [Ricciato, the school’s director] and he was de-lighted at the thought,” Fr. Neen-an said.

“Now, Baldwin has a perfect aerie.”

University carpenters, led by Joseph Figueiredo, created a handsome perch for the statue and its 42-inch wingspan, and it was soon revealed to the discern-ing audience at the school, which serves children with multiple spe-cial needs.

“The Campus School students and staff are thrilled to provide

a home for Baldwin. He is the centerpiece of the Campus School reception area and a wonderful conversation piece,” said Ricciato.

Fr. Neenan said he enjoyed seeing students’ reactions to Bald-win, who will now greet all visi-tors at the school’s entrance.

—Melissa Beecher

The Boston College Athlet-ics Department is teaming up with the University’s Center for Student Formation for a new student social media campaign — including undergraduate-produced videos — that encour-ages improved sportsmanship at on-campus athletic events.

“No one knows a BC student better than another BC student,” says Associate Athletics Director for External Relations James Di Loreto, who is working with Vice President for University Mission and Ministry Jack But-ler, SJ, and Student Formation Center Director Michael Sacco to implement the plan.

“We want to look at how we can get students involved with tackling some of the challenges that we face relative to sports-manship overall,” Di Loreto says. “It’s not just a BC issue, it’s a universal challenge. We want to get students engaged

in helping us plan the creative part of this. We are going to invest in and support initiatives created by students and make a campaign around inspirational videos about what it means to be a BC student.”

Earlier this week, student filmmaker Sean Casey ’12 and

his brother Kevin ’04 produced a video that includes the words of then-US Sen. John F. Kenne-dy’s commencement address at Boston College in 1956, when he urged the school’s graduates to be their best in every en-deavor of their lives [http://bit.ly/rPDLaQ].

“The goal is for us to get creative and to have students get engaged in a competition to produce videos to highlight some of the things that happen on our campus,” Di Loreto says, “and to improve some of the ways that folks sometimes act at games.”

Di Loreto says more videos will be added to the website at the start of the spring semester and prizes will be awarded to students whose work best con-veys the sportsmanship theme. Students will be encouraged to comment on the videos and share the links with others.

“Knowing that our target au-dience is students, we thought that having students putting the whole project together – with us advising and supporting them throughout – would be one of the better ways to make it suc-cessful,” Di Loreto says.

—Reid Oslin

Next month, more than 500 adult Catholics from the Arch-diocese of San Francisco are ex-pected to take part in “Forward in Faith: Educational Enrich-ment for the Thinking Catho-lic,” a customized faith formation program developed especially for them by Church in the 21st Century Online. It is the first time C21 Online has developed a program for use across an entire diocese.

The courses, which will fo-cus on faith discipleship and the Church, sacramental life and practices in Christian living, are geared for Catholics “in the pews” as well as those in parish leadership positions.

“We’re very excited about this

program,” said School of Theol-ogy and Ministry Director of Continuing Education Barbara Anne Radtke, who designed the courses in concert with Bishop Robert W. McElroy, an auxil-iary bishop in the San Fran-cisco Archdiocese; Sister Celeste Arbuckle, SSS, director of the archdiocese’s Office for Religious Education and Youth Ministry, and Father Dave Pettingill, for-mer director of the archdiocese’s School of Pastoral Leadership. Established in 1853, the Arch-diocese of San Francisco is home to 400,000 Catholics.

The program will be admin-istered both online, primarily for young adults ages 20-39, and in 12 parish locations throughout

the archdiocese. The 20-session, two-semester program is adapted from Church in the 21st Century Center presentations and STM Continuing Education presenta-tions. The parish-based sessions will feature a Boston College lec-ture on DVD followed by fa-cilitated discussions led by local faith educators. For the online courses, Radtke and three others will serve as facilitators in moder-ated chat rooms.

C21 Online has previously worked directly with other dio-ceses, such as Norwalk, Conn.; Fairbanks, Alaska; Albany, NY; and Green Bay, Wis. But as Radtke points out, those instanc-es were limited to small groups or specific components of the dio-

ceses’ population, such as Catho-lic elementary school teachers.

In addition to the courses for the San Francisco Archdiocese, C21 Online will continue its ro-bust offering of other non-credit courses for Catholics seeking spiritual renewal and faith forma-tion. According to Radtke, about 1,000 online learners participat-ed in the moderated courses last academic year — a number that does not reflect the people tak-ing the free, mini-courses offered 24/7 from the C21 Online web-site. Those mini-courses, avail-able in English and Spanish, have been viewed by tens of thousands of people in all 50 states and some 130 countries since C21 Online’s inception in 2004.

—Kathleen Sullivan

A statue made by the sister of Vice President William B. Neenan, SJ, now graces the entrance to the Boston College Campus School. (Photo by Caitlin Cunningham)

A scene from the video by Sean Casey ’12 and his brother Kevin ’04 that uses excerpts from John F. Kennedy’s speech at Boston College in 1956.

New chapter unfolding for Church in the 21st Century Online

Making a pitch for good sportsmanship on campus

A place to roost for Baldwin

With support from his Boston College men’s hockey teammates, junior goaltender Parker Milner has organized a toy drive to benefit two organizations, the Child Life Department of Boston Children’s Hos-pital and Toys For Tots.

To support this cause, bring a new, packaged and unwrapped toy (appropri-ate for the hospital setting) to the Eagles’ game against Boston University tomor-row, Dec. 2, in Conte Fo-rum.

Toys will be collected at the door and distributed by the hockey team to the chil-dren at Children’s Hospital and Toys for Tots program before the holiday break.

Toy Drive at BC-BU Friday

The BosTon College

ChronicledeCember 1, 2011

3

credit Matt DeLuca ’11, who served as Heights editor-in-chief in 2010.

One of the pieces in The Heights’ winning portfolio was the May 2, 2011, issue which featured student reaction to the death of Osama bin Laden on the front page.

“That night was one of my most exciting as a news edi-tor,” recalled Heights News Editor Taylour Kumpf ’13, an English major from Columbus, Neb. “The front page was all laid out. But then we started hearing things on Twitter about Osama bin Laden. We watched President Obama give an address about bin Laden on our TV in the newsroom. Then we started getting texts about things hap-pening on campus. It started in the Mods and traveled to Middle Campus. We sent some staff out-

side while the rest of us worked in the newsroom. The texts kept coming. Finally, we all ran out-side.”

The decision was made to scrap the front page in favor of the breaking news. It was work that kept Kumpf and others there until nearly sunrise.

“It was a team effort to make that front page. So many peo-ple contributed,” added Kumpf, who assumes the post of Heights editor-in-chief effective in Janu-ary.

Caprio, an economics ma-jor from Scituate, RI, said The Heights board is not resting on its laurels. “We are working on a new section to replace Market-place and we are continuing to work on writing.”

With his tenure as editor-in-chief coming to a close, Caprio reflected on the highlights of his time on The Heights, notably the BC Institutional Master Plan’s impact on the campus, includ-ing the construction of Stokes Hall. “We’re at a unique posi-tion to view BC at a transition. The master plan has presented so many opportunities to chronicle University history.”

The BosTon College

Chronicle

By ed hayward Staff writer

Taking a cue from a popular global lecture series that high-lights cutting-edge thinking and new ideas, a Boston College stu-dent group has launched BC-Talks to provide a new forum to highlight the scholarly interests and achievements of undergradu-ates.

Modeled after TEDTalks, a foundation-sponsored series de-voted to “ideas worth spreading,” BCTalks aims to bridge the gap between the academic and social lives of undergraduates, accord-ing to student organizers from the group Education for Students by Students, which held the first event on Nov. 13 and 14 in Rob-sham Theater Arts Center.

The 14 speakers were drawn from the ranks of students whose scholarly accomplishments have been recognized by Advanced

Study Grants or Undergradu-ate Research Fellowships. The topics ranged from senior Brian Tracz’s “Think Glia: Mental Life Beyond the Neurons” to senior Abby Letak’s “Accidental Intel-lectuals: How Modern Quality Television is Changing the Way We Think.”

Event co-founder Connor Sullivan ’13 said the BCTalks drew a vocal crowd that added to the excitement of the unique speaker format. Presentations were kept to 20-25 minutes.

“Often at BC there’s a di-vide between academic and social life,” said Sullivan. “We have these incredibly passionate dis-cussions in class, but not many of those discussions take place outside the classroom.”

Lisa Piccirillo ’13, another event co-founder, said the pro-cess of sifting through potential speakers, their projects and re-sumes offered insight into the

depth of intellectual pursuits among undergraduates.

“Just putting together a one-paragraph summary for the panel to consider was a challenge,” said Piccirillo, a math major. “These students have multiple interests and they’ve accomplished some-thing significant in almost each area.”

All of the talks were video-taped and the organizers expect to post them to the web in the coming weeks. A second BC-Talks event is being organized for the spring semester as well.

“We haven’t put any limits on whether speakers can present again, but we think it’s probably something someone does once,” said Piccirillo. “We want to put the focus on that passion and interest they have put all their effort into.”

For more information about BCTalks, see the website www.bctalks.org

discussion seminars and ongoing rapport between students and in-structors who double as academic advisors.

“The reason for me to leave is purely out of gratitude,” said O’Connor, the successor as pro-gram director to Joseph Appleyard, SJ, who became BC’s inaugural vice president for University Mis-sion and Ministry in 1998. “As much as you love a job, the best way to show it — especially in a Christian context — is to give it to someone else.”

Quigley praised O’Connor for long representing “much of what is best about Boston College. His profound commitment to our stu-dents, his steadfast belief in the transformative power of the liberal arts, and his visionary leadership will be sorely missed.”

Approximately 150 students en-ter the honors program annually, most with combined SAT scores in the range of 1450 and a place in the top five percent of their high school classes. However, program

administrators note, A&S Honors also seeks out the “off-beat” stu-dents whose academic or life expe-riences are compelling enough that they might benefit from enrolling. Superior first-year students are also admitted to the Honors Program as sophomores on the recommenda-tion of their instructors.

The third year of the program is devoted to an advanced seminar, The 20th Century and the Tra-dition, which encourages critical inquiry into the Western canon while placing it in a modern con-text. For their final year, students are required to complete an honors thesis or creative project.

O’Connor credits past directors Fr. Appleyard and David Gill, SJ, and the support of late A&S Dean J. Robert Barth, SJ, for the develop-ment of A&S Honors into “a pro-gram with a central intellectual ele-ment in each undergraduate year.”

“It’s not a ‘great books program,’ but rather an ‘enduring questions’ program,” said O’Connor, who also served as A&S Honors assis-

tant and associate director. “There will be variations on the texts used, but the variations speak to the same universal questions about existence, identity and the nature of God — and the conversation is always powerful.”

That conversation has been sig-nificantly influenced by the rise in academic quality of BC undergrad-uates, says O’Connor, recalling dis-cussions with students about how one’s academic achievements relate to personal and spiritual formation.

“The best students,” he said, “are teaching me what I teach the next generation of students.”

O’Connor noted that he has maintained friendships with a number of former students “who are one, two, five, 10, even 30 years” removed from BC: “They’ll send an e-mail saying, ‘You prob-ably won’t remember me,’ but I do. I enjoy continuing the conver-sations we started when they were students. Many of them have new perspectives, but the questions they — we — face are still enduring questions.”

By Kathleen Sullivan Staff writer

The Heights, Boston College’s independent student newspaper, has received a 2011 Associated Collegiate Press Newspaper Pace-maker Award for general excel-lence and outstanding achieve-ment. The award, co-sponsored by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, has recog-nized general excellence in colle-giate newspapers for 84 years and is considered the highest honor in collegiate journalism.

This marks the first time The Heights, a finalist in 2006, 2007 and 2008, captured the award for general excellence. One of 13 national winners for general excellence in the category of non-daily newspapers from four-year colleges, The Heights was the only college newspaper in Massachu-

setts to be honored for overall excellence.

Heights Photography Editor Alex Trautwig ’12 also won hon-orable mention in the Sports Pic-ture category for his photograph of the sailing team on Dorchester Bay.

All ACP award entries were judged by professional journal-ists in the Washington, DC, area on criteria such as coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership of the opin-ion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, layout and design, photography, art and graphics. Winners were announced at the 90th Annual Associated Colle-giate Press/College Media Asso-ciation National College Media Convention in Orlando on Oct. 29.

“I think what distinguished us this year was the design,” said Heights Editor-in-Chief Michael Caprio ’12, who oversaw the submission process. “We’ve got some great designers and the Arts & Review page has never looked better.”

Caprio, who submitted select editions of The Heights drawn from over the course of the 2010-11 academic year, was quick to

The Heights was the only college newspaper in Massachusetts to be honored for overall excellence. (Photo cour-tesy of Kevin Hou and Alex Hartwig)

Contact Kathleen Sullivan at kathleen.sullivan@bc.edu

Heights Wins Top Award for General Excellence

Presenters at the first BCTalks event included (L-R) Christopher Sheridan, Jennifer Wanandi and Rosemary Chandler.

Photos by Justin Knight

A New Forum for Student ScholarshipBCTalks provides showcase to highlight undergraduates’ academic work

Continued from page 1

O’Connor to Leave A&S Honors Program

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ChronicledeCember 1, 2011

“Priests are going to have to pre-pare more carefully in order to see ahead of time how the new trans-lation will affect the Mass,” said Groome. “They can’t just presume the sentences will flow, because some of them don’t.”

The church’s Vox Clara Com-mittee has worked since 2001 to-ward a revised translation of the 1,228-page Missal, including prominent passages such as the Nicene Creed.

In the old Missal, parishioners recited the creed to proclaim that Jesus Christ is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.” With the new translation, Catholics profess Christ “begotten, not made, con-substantial with the Father.”

In the previous format of Mass, the priest says “The Lord be with you,” and the congregation re-sponded “And also with you.” That response has changed to “And with your spirit.”

Director of Campus Ministry Fr. Tony Penna tested out the new language at a “training” Mass in the Heights Room at Corcoran Com-mons two weeks ago, providing students with cards printed with the new language in key passages.

“The cards gave the people a new confidence that they knew the prayers,” said Fr. Penna. “They came along fairly easily. It was harder for the priests because we are so used to other texts.”

Fr. Penna said the “theologically

rich and poetic” language of the new Missal offers the opportunity to talk about critical elements of the Catholic faith.

“This gives Campus Ministry the chance to have a conversation about the meaning of Mass and what the prayers are meant to com-municate,” Fr. Penna said. “It gives us a chance to revisit something we haven’t had to discuss in a long time and I think that is going to be positive.”

Fr. Baldovin said the new lan-guage may make some people un-easy at first, but he expects Catho-lics will adjust to the changes.

“The bottom line of the liturgy is how it helps us become better Christians,” said Fr. Baldovin, who worked on liturgical text translation with the International Commission on English in the Liturgy from 1994 to 2002. “Are we living faith, hope and love better? That’s the real question.”

Will the changes reduce the number of people attending Sun-day Mass? Probably not, according to Fr. Baldovin.

“People are not going to church because Mass is too long or too boring,” he asserted. “It is because they are not feeling cared for by us, by their pastors, and they’re not finding the center of their lives in their Christian faith. And that’s the real challenge. I am hopeful the new translation will help people in this regard.”

try now.”As Luisa remembers, her fa-

ther didn’t spend a lot of time spelling out to the family his rea-sons for enlisting. “When he was in Spain, he served in the military — it was compulsory. In this case, I think he just felt, ‘This is my country now, so I should do the same.’ He also was interested in working with post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Meanwhile, Luisa neared the end of her high school years, and Boston College was an obvious choice for her next destination. She had a good sense of the place from the times Alfonso took her to campus when she was a little girl. More importantly, she knew BC had a well-respected program in nursing, and that was what she wanted to study.

“There are a lot of doctors in my family, and then there’s Dad, a social worker, and Mom, a teacher,” says Luisa, explaining her choice of career. “Nursing fits right in — I like the caring aspect of it.”

Said Alfonso, “Luisa is a very sensitive and caring person. Since she was a baby, she had the abil-ity to make people feel good. I felt really happy when she chose to go to BC. I enjoyed — still do — being part of the BC commu-nity and she is doing the same. I really feel proud of her.”

“I guess it’s a little weird, us both being at BC, even though he actually hasn’t been here,” says Luisa, with a chuckle. “But it brings us closer together. I talk to him about things going on here, and he understands.”

When Alfonso learned last February that he would be ship-ping out, Luisa spent five days with him in Fort Drum, NY, where he was stationed — her mother and sister came for a separate visit during their school vacation week. Since arriving in Afghanistan, Alfonso has tried to get on the phone once a day with Maria, and perhaps get a brief word with one or both of the girls, if he can.

“He doesn’t really like to talk about what’s going on,” says Lu-isa. She has been trying to educate herself as much as possible about Afghanistan, and has found it a challenging undertaking. “What you see in the media is not 100 percent what’s going on.”

Alfonso’s main duties are to give advice to commanders, con-duct evaluations, provide coun-seling, address traumatic events, develop programs to improve resiliency, and supervise a small group of behavioral health spe-cialists. “You also have to partici-

pate in regular soldier activities,” he added.

His situation is a little differ-ent than for most BHOs, Alfonso adds. “My team and I developed a resiliency program that is set-ting a new standard for quality of care. We work together with regular medical providers as well as providers for combat stress and mild traumatic brain injuries. We teach classes, provide counseling and evaluations, medication eval-uations, battlefield circulations (we try to go to the more for-ward areas to see soldiers there), and any other support we can think of.”

GSSW offered its own sup-port for Alfonso and his fellow soldiers this fall, when Associate Dean for Academic and Student Services Regina O’Grady-Le-Shane organized a drive to collect

books, CDs, DVDs, notebooks, pens and other items to send to the unit; in addition, the school held book and bake sales, raising more than $500 to donate to a book fund for the troops.

“That was very thoughtful of them,” says Luisa, who stopped by the bake sale to show her ap-preciation. “It really means a lot to know people care.”

If Alfonso’s absence made last week’s annual Thanksgiving gathering a bittersweet experi-ence for Luisa’s family, his re-turn for Christmas will definitely make the holiday season shinier.

“We were thinking about tak-ing a fun trip,” says Luisa, smil-ing, “but he’ll probably just want to be at home. And that’s fine.”

Professor of English Suzanne Matson is among the recipients of the 2012 Creative Writing Fellowship in Prose from the Na-tional Endowment for the Arts for a work of fiction currently in progress.

“It’s an immense honor to receive an NEA, one for which I’m very grateful, and it’s already given my writing new momen-tum,” said Matson, who is chair of the English Department. “My current fiction project has been changing shapes for a while—first it was a historical novel, and now it’s a novel-in-stories that’s partly contemporary, and partly historical. The fact that the NEA Fellowship was awarded for an excerpt of it gives me the confidence to plunge ahead with a new sense of excitement.”

Competition for the NEA awards is extremely rigorous; this year the Creative Writing Fellowships Panel reviewed 1,179 eligible applications.

Matson has received fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the American-Scandinavian Foundation. Her novels are The Tree-Sitter, A Trick of Nature and The Hun-ger Moon, and she has published two books of poetry, Durable Goods and Sea Level.

—Office of News & Public Affairs

Matson Earns NEA Fellowship

Continued from page 1 “There are a lot of doctors in my family, and then there’s Dad, a social worker, and

Mom, a teacher,” says Luisa. “Nursing fits right in — I like

the caring aspect of it.”

“Luisa is a very sensitive and car-ing person,” says Alfonso. “Since she was a baby, she had the abil-ity to make people feel good. I felt really happy when she chose to go to BC...I really feel proud of her.”

Lee Pellegrini

Contact Sean Smith at sean.smith@bc.edu

Former Massachusetts Supreme Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall discussed the Magna Carta and the Massachusetts State Constitution Nov. 15 in Gasson 100, an event sponsored by the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy and the McMullen Museum of Art.

Lee Pellegrini

Contact Ed Hayward at ed.hayward@bc.edu

Prof. John Baldovin, SJ (STM): “The bottom line of the liturgy is how it helps us become better Christians.”

Continued from page 1

Fran

k C

urra

n Alvarezes Keep BC, Family Ties Strong

New Missal Introduced

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Q&AA FEW MINUTES WITH...

By meliSSa BeeCher Staff writer

For the past 31 years, the In-ternational Assistants Program has established meaningful friendships between international and Ameri-can students at Boston College.

One way that bond is formed is with food – lots of food.

Four turkeys, mountains of mashed potatoes, stuffing and a dozen pies were cooked from scratch by the International As-sistants last month to introduce more than 100 foreign students to the tradition of Thanksgiving. The group prepares events for each of the holidays, said Office of Interna-tional Students and Scholars Direc-tor Adrienne Nussbaum, but none as elaborate or appreciated as the Thanksgiving feast, which this year took place Nov. 13 in O’Connell House.

“The purpose of this program is to match incoming freshmen one-on-one with a current BC student, who acts as a peer advisor during their first year here. The program is unique to BC. The International

Assistants help the international students navigate American culture and introduce them to cultural ex-periences here in the US, which can be intimidating,” said Nussbaum.

In addition to Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations, the Inter-national Assistants have organized visits to Florida, ski trips in New Hampshire and Vermont, outings at restaurants in and around Bos-ton, and various service projects. More recently, the group held a pumpkin carving party for Hallow-een and will be putting on a holiday social this month.

“The holiday tradition that is probably most loved is Thanks-giving, because the international students truly appreciate the effort in making a meal of this size,” said Nussbaum.

International students, like Edith Delaney from Ireland, made it a point to thank the Office of In-ternational Students and Scholars for the event.

“I was overcome by the effort which your department and the IA team went to to prepare such a feast,” Delaney wrote. “It really

was a lovely occasion and so very thoughtful of you all.”

Nussbaum explained that the personal touch is the hallmark of the program. Through that one-on-one contact with an established BC student, both the international and BC students feel more con-nected, Nussbaum said.

“I think it’s important to em-phasize that a program like this doesn’t exist at other schools. This is unique to Boston College and — I am not overstating this — it changes lives. The relationships that are formed in this program are for life, and we’ve seen that time and time again.

“Through International Assis-tants, students are exposed to dif-ferent cultures and find their niche here through one another,” said Nussbaum.

For more on the International Assistants Program, visit http://www.bc.edu/offices/oiss/programs/ia.html. A Flickr slideshow is also available of the Thanksgiving event at www.flickr.com/bostoncollege

Boston College student perfor-mance groups and invited speakers will present a concert tomorrow night, Dec. 2, to raise awareness about the conflict in the Demo-cratic Republic of Congo and fos-ter solidarity with the Congolese people.

“Concert for Congo,” spon-sored by the Arts and Social Re-sponsibility Project, Artists Striving to End Poverty at BC (ASTEP@BC) and BC for Congo, will be held at 8 p.m. in the Robsham Theater Arts Center.

ASTEP@BC co-president Kas-ey Brown ’12 says the event is an opportunity to “watch your favorite BC student groups perform, learn about the current conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and find out how you can help end the violence in the most dangerous

place on earth to be a woman. “Speakers will come together

with student performance groups to celebrate and be in solidarity with the people of Congo.”

Appearing will be educator, actor, poet, motivational speaker, publisher and author Omékongo Dibinga, whose Congolese parents fled their homeland because of their role in its fight for liberation. Dib-inga uses the spoken word to reach across continents to foster cultural understanding and acceptance, ac-cording to organizers.

Also speaking will be Alexandra Hellmuth, a coordinator for the Enough Project, an initiative of the Center for American Progress that aims to end genocide and crimes against humanity and prevent them in the future.

BC student groups will perform

African, Latin, step and hip hop dance to soul music, as well as a cappella music in various genres. Among those performing will be PATU, Fuego Del Corazon, FISTS, the Madrigal Singers, the Boston College Acoustics, Against the Current, Synergy Hip Hop Dance Company and BEATS.

Tickets for the event are $10 each; proceeds will be donated to Panzi Hospital in Bukavi, DRC, which provides treatment and care to survivors of rape. Tickets may be purchased at the Robsham Theater Box Office or by phone at ext.2-4002.

For more details on the event, as well as information about the Democratic Republic of Congo, see concertforcongo.wordpress.com.

—Rosanne Pellegrini

Willie PadillaAssociate Professor of Physics Willie Padilla is at the forefront of research into metamaterials, a relatively new class of materials engineered to produce tai-lored responses to light. Metamaterials have produced stunning experimental results – bending light at the negative refractive index, perfectly absorbing all light and creating space-hiding wave patterns dubbed “invisibility cloaking.” In 2010, President Obama honored Padilla and a select group of his col-leagues with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Recently, he spoke with Ed Hayward of the Chronicle [a fuller version of this interview is available via online Chronicle at www.bc.edu/chronicle].

What led you into the field of physics?My father steered me and was always urging me to pursue science in high school. I took as many science classes as I could, including physics. I was always inquisitive and asking questions and wanted to know how things worked — not just on a superficial level, but deep down how things really worked. So I constantly asked questions until people would tell me to get lost.

What types of advances in metamaterials are you working on in your lab?We continue to push to create state-of-the-art terahertz metamaterials. I think it’s an area that’s rich in potential applications. We’ve also had another advance that grew out of my work at Los Alamos — the perfect absorber, which can absorb all of the light that strikes it. We’re working on infrared applications of these perfect absorbers, which could lead to the ability to make high per-formance infrared cameras for thermal imaging. We are working through a Department of Energy grant to take perfect absorbers and use them as emitters, which could lead to materials capable of absorbing waste heat from industrial processes, converting it to electrons and storing it as energy. There are some devices that have demonstrated these abilities, but they are not commercially feasible. We hope to change that.

What is your prediction for the role metamaterials will play in our lives 20 years from now?I think that metamaterials will lead to devices that will make our lives better, like any technology should. They will have applications and while I don’t know if they will be world changing, I think they will have a positive impact. It is a burgeoning field with thousands of researchers working in it, so I think over the next two decades we’ll see improved devices that will have real-world applications.

You were awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers last year by President Obama. What was it like to meet the president and the other honorees?It was better than I could have imagined. We were in a room, lined up and before you knew it he was there. He popped in and started shaking hands and greeting people. He seemed very genuine and he spoke about science and how important it is and how it is a driver of our economy. He argued funding for scientific research should not be cut. It was a great experience and I was very humbled to be in the room with him and so many accom-plished scientists.

Hispanics are underrepresented in many scientific fields. How impor-tant is it to you to encourage young people of color to pursue scientific study or careers and what does it take to encourage them?It’s important to tell them it’s possible. I think my own story speaks to that. It is a lot of hard work, but it is well worth it in the end. In my teaching, I am glad to share my passion for science and physics. I try to lead by example and I am always glad to help out students who want to pursue graduate study or careers. For students who express interest, I steer them toward opportuni-ties, such as internships, fellowships and scholarships that are designed to increase the representation of minorities in the sciences. I received a McNair Scholarship as an undergraduate and it was a huge help to me.

More at www.bc.edu/chronicle

‘Concert for Congo’ Is Tomorrow Night

O’Connell House was the site of the International Assistants Program Thanksgiving dinner.

IA Program Offers Friendship and Cultural EducationInternational students get an introduction to American life, and its holidays

Fran

k C

urra

n

Matson Earns NEA Fellowship

Lee Pellegrini

Contact Melissa Beecher at melissa.beecher@bc.edu

Lee Pellegrini

6

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ChronicledeCember 1, 2011

By meliSSa BeeCher Staff writer

Little known fact for those out-side historical legal literature circles: Massachusetts was the hub of legal publishing in the 19th century, when American legal scholarship was taking shape. Now, some of those texts, published just after the American Revolution, are on display in the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room at the Boston College Law Library.

“The Golden Age of Legal Publishing in Massachusetts,” on display through the spring of 2012, boasts rare treasures – works by Joseph Story, Si-mon Greenleaf and Theophilus Parsons – that show the progres-sion of legal scholar-ship in the fledgling nation, according to Legal Infor-mation Librarian, Law Lecturer and Rare Book Room Curator Laurel Davis.

“So many legal thinkers and scholars of the 19th century came out of Massachusetts and were published in Massachusetts,” said Davis. “Seeing how the Common-wealth was a hotbed of this new legal thought and activity, in what was a new country, is striking.”

Prior to the rise of the West publishing empire in the late 1800s, Massachusetts publishers and print-

ers led the way in producing many of the texts that established or influ-enced the legal practice in the new Republic, said Davis.

“In an age when so many things are getting digitized, the artifact itself becomes so important. Un-derstanding how these works re-ally came about and the efforts that went into producing them; having a larger birds eye view of how legal scholarship has evolved and how jurisprudence has evolved in a larger context is incredibly useful,” Davis said.

Among the treasures on display is The Spirit of Laws, a text written by French political thinker and so-cial commentator Charles-Lois de Secondat, baron de La Brede et de Montesquieu. The work was pub-lished by Isaiah Thomas and greatly influenced the Massachusetts and US constitutions. Another is the first American printing of William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England that was published after the American Revolution, at a time when reprinting English legal texts was a key first step in

the evolution of American legal publishing.

Also on display is Simon Green-leaf’s first edition A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, purchased in honor of Michael Morales, a mem-ber of the BC Law Class of 2009. One volume includes an inscrip-tion penned by Greenleaf to Joseph Story.

“Michael became very interested in rare books as a student, and the works of Greenleaf in particular. He helped the previous curator, Karen Beck, curate an exhibit on

Simon Greenleaf,” said Davis. “After that ex-hibit concluded, this book came up for pur-chase and it was de-cided that it would be acquired in his honor. It is a beautiful, beauti-ful first edition.”

For the first time in a Rare Book Room exhibit, supplemental materials are available online through the use of QR code technol-ogy. Users can click a picture of the code using a QR reader

in their mobile devices, and ad-ditional websites, slideshows and audio tours are available. Educa-tional Technology Specialist Ches-ter Kozikowski helped integrate the technology into the exhibit.

“It helps blend the old and new in a way that has not been done before here,” said Davis.

The exhibit can be viewed when-ever the room is open, weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Class tours can be arranged by contacting Laurel Davis at davislp@bc.edu. For more, visit http://bit.ly/sIU4Ci

By reid oSlin Staff writer

What does the music of the Rolling Stones have in common with St. Augustine’s notions of evil?

Plenty, say Carroll School of Management junior Michael Barilli and Stephanie St. Martin ’07, MA ’10, who teamed up to write a chapter analyzing the famed Stones’ hit, “Sympathy for the Devil,” that will be included in a recently pub-lished book, The Rolling Stones and Philosophy: It’s Just a Thought Away.

Barilli, a music aficionado who plays the drums and was a member of several local rock bands on Long Island, NY, was a freshman in Ad-junct Associate Professor Brian Bra-

man’s Perspectives class two years ago when he met St. Martin, holder of the University’s Bernard Loner-gan, SJ, Scholarship for graduate study in philosophy and a teaching assistant for Braman.

Barilli had assisted in the compi-lation of a song list for a class proj-ect on music and philosophy, and when St. Martin received a call for papers for the proposed philosophy book on the meaning of the famed rock group’s lyrics, she engaged the multi-talented undergraduate as co-author.

“Basically, ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ is St. Augustine’s notion of evil juxtaposed over the song,” Barilli explains. “He talks a lot about how the devil is not always there for all human atrocities — so it’s saying ‘Who is to blame here? Is it mankind or is it the devil?’ It was pretty interesting. A lot of people who take Perspectives may be a

little skeptical about practical ap-plications of philosophy. Music is a good way to get people to realize that it is still relevant.”

St. Martin, currently teaching a philosophy course at Middlesex Community College, says, “The amount of work that Michael did on this was just tremendous. He even thought of including some Socrates at the end of the chap-ter. In ‘Apologies,’ Socrates makes charges of not believing in God, corrupting youth and becoming sophists – people who argue for the sake of arguing, but have no real point. That is eerily similar to what the Stones are saying. I thought it was a stroke of genius for Michael to include that.”

The Rolling Stones and Philos-ophy is the latest in a series of “popular philosophy” books made available by Open Court Publish-ing of Chicago [www.opencourt-

books.com]. St. Martin had previ-ously contributed a chapter with Philosophy Professor Peter Kreeft to another pop philosophy book, The Red Sox and Philosophy: Green Monster Meditations, which exam-ined the enchantment and hope generated by New England baseball

fans toward their beloved baseball team. Other books in the pub-lisher’s series include The Sopranos and Philosophy, The Simpsons and Philosophy and Harley-Davidson and Philosophy.

BC authors see ties between Rolling Stones and philosophers’ work

Michael Barilli ’13 and Stephanie St. Martin ’07, MA ’10, contributors to The Roll-ing Stones and Philosophy: It’s Just a Thought Away. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

Contact Reid Oslin at reid.oslin@bc.edu

Boston College Police working at last month’s BC-NC State foot-ball game took time to socialize with some young Eagles fans.

Boston College Law School has ranked first in a recent National Jurist poll that reviewed where the partners of the nation’s largest law firms went to school [see http://bit.ly/uGV5vU] .

According to the survey, BC Law has produced 120 partners in Boston’s largest firms. Boston University, Harvard University, Suffolk University and Georgetown University rounded out the top five.

“Boston College has a long history of placing leaders within the local community,” said Law School Dean Vincent Rougeau. “This has a lot to do with our tremendously strong and loyal alumni network, as well as the hard work of our alumni relations and career services offices to keep them connected.

“It also speaks volumes about the talent within our student body, and our focus on teaching theory and practice within the highest ethical and moral standards, which makes our graduates uniquely suited to practice law anywhere in the world,” said Rougeau.

The survey, conducted by University of Loyola Marymount Law School Professor Ted Seto, was published in the Journal of Legal Education prior to its findings being released in National Jurist. The study interviewed 16,799 partners at the nation’s largest law firms. Nationally, BC Law ranked 20th for producers of top law firm partners with 213.

More telling, the study showed that almost 50 percent of top law firm partners come from 20 schools, Boston College among them.

—Melissa Beecher

BC Law 1st in National Jurist Poll Exhibit Shows Bay State’s Legal Legacy Law Library hosting ‘Golden Age of Legal Publishing in Mass.’

“Seeing how the Commonwealth was a hotbed of this new legal thought and activity, in what was a new country, is striking.”

—Laurel davis

Mick, Keith...and St. Augustine?

Photo by Jason Liu

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The BosTon College

ChronicledeCember 1, 2011

7

JOBSBC BRIEFING

BC in the MediaCharitable giving is likely to

draw increased attention among Americans, given anticipated cuts in federal spending following the debt reduction “Super Commit-tee’s” failure, and a proposal to cut the tax deduction for chari-table giving as a way of gener-ating much-needed federal rev-enue. But Professor of Law Ray Madoff, writing in a recent op-ed for the New York Times, pointed out a growing problem related to charitable giving.

“When most people think about charitable giving, they en-vision money going to support local food banks or educational organizations, or donations to the Red Cross that can be put to work immediately on disaster re-lief. But it is increasingly common for charitable donations to take a significant detour before ever be-ing put to charitable use.”

Madoff explained that more charitable dollars are being di-rected to “donor-advised funds,” many of them associated with large financial institutions like Fidelity and Goldman Sachs, which hold, invest and eventually distribute the money for chari-table purposes. Because institu-tions housing these funds earn management and investment fees, they have little incentive to speed

up distribution of resources to charities, according to Madoff. Donors, meanwhile, receive the tax deduction as soon as they make their contribution, but their money is allowed to languish for decades or even centuries.

Madoff called on Congress to enact rules requiring donor-advised funds to distribute all of their assets to real public charities within seven years of their contri-bution.

“Congress should make clear that private foundations cannot meet their payout obligations by making gifts to donor-advised funds,” she added. “Then we can have a real conversation about the best way to feed all those hungry people.”

The op-ed is available at http://nyti.ms/seTR0W

NewsmakersThe Chicago Sun-Times and Science Daily noted a study co-authored by Asst. Prof. Julie Paquette MacEvoy (LSOE) that suggests girls are just as likely to feel offended or sad as boys, especially when let down by friends, and pre-teen girls may not be any better at friendships than boys, despite previous research suggesting otherwise. Among the “innovation all stars” fea-tured by the Boston Business Journal were juniors C.J. Reim, Rich Rines and Kevin Driscoll, who launched the energy consumption monitor Power Dashboard, and 1997 BC Law alumna and intellectual property “tech luminary” Jennifer Camacho.

Founders Professor of Theology James Keenan, SJ, discussed with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the need for training in ethics that would give officials preparation to deal with con-flicting allegiances and moral dilem-mas in work situations such as the scandal at Penn State.

Rattigan Professor of English Mary Crane, director of the Institute for the Liberal Arts, and Biology Chair-man Prof. Thomas Chiles explained why the liberal arts need the sci-ences — and vice versa — in a com-mentary for the Chronicle of Higher Education.

PublicationsVanderslice Professor of Chemistry Lawrence Scott co-edited Fragments of Fullerenes and Carbon Nanotubes.

Asst. Prof. Andrea Vicini, SJ (STM), published “Etica teologica, pratica

medica e sanità: per una maggiore e migliore giustizia (Theological Eth-ics, Medical Practice, and Healthcare: To Promote a Greater and Better Jus-tice)” in Studia Moralia, and “Genet-ica umana: Progressi e implicazioni etiche (Human Genetics: Advances and Ethical Implications)” in Vita Pastorale.

Prof. Jeffrey Cohen (CSOM) pub-lished “The Impact of CEO Influ-ence and Management Incentives on Auditor Judgments” in Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory.

Honors/AppointmentsAssoc. Prof. Jonathan Laurence (Political Science) received a distin-guished academician award at the Turkish Cultural Center Boston’s an-nual Friendship Dinner for “contri-butions to civic life” for his public speaking engagements in the past year.

The following are among the most recent positions posted by the De-partment of Human Resources. For more information on employ-ment opportunities at Boston Col-lege, see www.bc.edu/offices/hr/:

Dean, Lynch School of Education

Research Associate, Center on Ag-ing and Work

Assistant Director, Research In-tegrity and Compliance, Com-pliance and Intellectual Property Management

Director, Campus Recreation, Athletic Association

Legal Information Librarian, Law School

Associate Dean, Academic and Student Services, Graduate School of Social Work

Associate Director, University Fellowships office

Report Writer/Analyst, Advance-ment Services

Time and a HalfJesuit Institute Director and Canisius Professor T. Frank Kennedy, SJ, pre-sented “Jesuits and Music during the Time of Victoria” at the International

Tomás Luis de Victo-ria congress in León, Spain.

Prof. Hideo Konishi (Economics) chaired a

session and presented “Choosing a Licensee from Heterogeneous Rivals” at the fall 2011 Midwest Economic Theory Conference at Vanderbilt University.

English doctoral student Gene Gorman presented “Confining the Coens: Chain Gang History amid the Mythical Ruins of ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’” at the New Eng-land American Studies Association annual conference at Plimoth Planta-tion.

Prof. Dennis Shirley (LSOE) dis-cussed his research on global edu-cation reform movements with an international audience of researchers, policy makers and business leaders at TED+Unisinos, held at the Univer-sity of Sinos Valley, a Jesuit, Catholic university in Brazil.

Assoc. Prof. Jonathan Laurence (Po-litical Science) presented a paper on US relations with North Africa at a

conference held at the World Bank in Paris.

Asst. Prof. Maia McAleavey (Eng-lish) presented “The Burden of the Plot: Ballad and Novel in Gaskell’s Sylvia’s Lovers” at the North American Victorian Studies Association’s an-nual conference.

WElcoME ADDItIoNS

Asst. Prof. Jeffrey Byers (Chemistry) recently completed post-doctoral studies in chemistry at MIT, having earned a doc-torate in the subject at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. An expert in organome-tallic chemistry, he is leading an introductory class for graduate students on mechanistic studies in organic, organometallic and bioorganic chemistry. Byers, a teaching assistant for undergraduate chem-istry while pursuing his doctorate at Cal Tech, is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, where he was a summa cum laude scholar in chemistry with an aca-demic minor in English.

Clinical Instructor Julianne Nemes Walsh (CSON) has more than two decades of experience in pediatric nursing skills, having worked in pediatric emergency rooms, intensive care units and surgical units at major hospitals in Boston and Los Angeles. A Salem State University graduate with a master’s degree from BC, Walsh was a member of the Federal Pediatric Di-saster Team that participated in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Walsh’s previous teach-ing experience includes Northeastern University,

Curry College and Simmons College schools of nursing, as well as at BC. She will teach in the graduate pediatric nurse practitioner program in the Connell School.

An expert in educational evaluation and urban education, Asst. Prof. Lauren Saenz (LSOE) earned a doctorate in educational foundations, policy and practice from the University of Colorado School of Education, where she won outstanding doctoral graduate honors and did her dissertation on the impact of anti-Affirmative Action initiatives. A graduate of Princeton University, Saenz lists her academic interests as the democratic theories of education, policy and evaluation; educational evaluation as a public good; race-conscious education policies; and mixed methods of educational research.

An international educational background marks the credentials of Clin-ical Instructor Elaine Siow (CSON), who holds degrees from Singapore’s Nanyang Polytechnic School of Health Science, the University of Sydney, Australia, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she is currently a doctoral candidate. She is a board-certified acute care nurse practitioner and will teach courses in nursing care process, models of nursing care, patient safety, patient outcomes, continuity of care and acute care methods.

—Reid OslinPhotos by Gary Wayne Gilbert and Caitlin Cunningham

“Welcome Additions,” an occasional feature, profiles new faculty members at Boston College.

A group of 30 principals from Finland met with faculty from the Lynch School of Education and principals from local schools to talk about the Scandinavian nation’s successful schools. The Nov. 10 dis-cussion examined teacher recruitment and preparation, hiring, evalu-ation and retention, test-based accountability and teacher autonomy. The principals, from the Association of Finnish Independent Schools, also discussed current education reform efforts in the US.

Finnish schools have consistently scored at or near the top of all nations in reading, math and science on the PISA (Program for In-ternational Student Assessment) examinations. The Lynch School’s Brennan Professor of Education Andy Hargreaves and Professor Dennis Shirley have examined the factors behind Finland’s successful education programs, including the country’s highly selective teacher recruitment and preparation program, which is seen as one of the strengths of the Finnish education system.

—Ed Hayward

LSOE Hosts Finnish Educators

Lee Pellegrini

8

The BosTon College

ChronicledeCember 1, 2011

LOOKING AHEAD

BC SCENES

By roSanne Pellegrini Staff writer

Boston College’s Christmas season is officially underway, launched at last night’s annual tree-lighting ceremony on O’Neill Plaza, a campus tradition officiated by University President William P. Leahy, SJ.

Holiday events and seasonal of-ferings continue throughout the month of December:

This weekend, the University Chorale and Symphony Orches-tra, under the direction of conduc-tor John Finney, will present its annual Christmas concert, featur-ing traditional carols and excerpts from Handel’s “Messiah” and Tchai-kovsky’s “Nutcracker.” The concert takes place in Trinity Chapel on Newton Campus Dec. 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. and in Gasson 100 on Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. Admission is $10, $5 with BC ID.

On Dec. 6, Finney will direct members of the University Chorale in a free concert of traditional music of the Christmas season in St. Mary’s Chapel at 4 p.m. For information, e-mail concerts@bc.edu or call the Music Department at ext.2-6004.

The seventh annual Fair Trade Holiday Sale on Dec. 8 offers BC community members an alternative to commercial holiday shopping.

The sale, which is held from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the second floor of Corcoran Commons, features unique gifts from around the world, made by artisans and cooperatives, including fairly traded coffee, jew-elry, textiles and other international goods.

Buying fair trade supports grass-roots efforts for change in the de-veloping world, organizers note, ensuring that the people producing the goods are paid a just wage for their labor. For more information on the sale, vendors and the scholar-ship programs it supports, contact the Volunteer and Service Learning Center — which is cosponsoring the event with the BC Neighbor-hood Center and Dining Services — at ext.2-1317 or see http://bit.ly/7zXkGn.

Also on Dec. 8, some 200-250 students, faculty and other members of the University community are expected to turn out for the Un-dergraduate Government of Boston College’s “Breaking the Barriers Ball,” from 6-9 p.m. in Gasson 100, with student jazz ensemble BC bOp! performing.

UGBC Student Life Department Executive Manager Peter Brown ’12 says the popular semi-formal ball “is designed to bring students, faculty members and administrators of the Boston College community together to create a positive and collabora-tive environment both within and outside of the classroom.” Students purchase one ticket and receive an invitation to give to a faculty mem-ber of administrator of their choice.

Tickets are $10 and can be pur-chased at the Robsham Theater Box

Office (ext.2-4002); proceeds benefit the Salvation Army. For informa-tion, contact Brown at brownaat@bc.edu.

That same evening at 6:30 p.m., Irish harpist and singer Áine Mi-nogue will present “Music of the Winter Solstice and Christmas” as part of the Gaelic Roots Music, Song and Dance Workshop and Lecture Series. Sponsored by the Center for Irish Programs, the free event will be held in 2101 Commonwealth Avenue on the Brighton Campus. A sampling of Minogue’s music is available at her website, www.mi-nogue.com. For information e-mail irish@bc.edu or call ext.2-6396.

The Alumni Association’s annual Winter Wonderland, on Dec. 10 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., is a festive holiday celebration for alumni, fam-ily and friends, with performances

by strolling carolers, crafts, enter-tainment by Johnny the K, photos with Santa, a petting zoo and horse-drawn carriage rides through New-ton Campus.

Attendees are encouraged to bring new, unwrapped toys for boys or girls aged six to 14, which will be do-nated to the Italian Home for Chil-dren. Admission is $20 per group of five; each additional attendee is $5. Register at www.bc.edu/winterwon-derland, or for more information contact the Alumni Association at alumni.comments@bc.edu or call ext.2-4700. [Inclement weather date is Dec. 11.]

Also on Dec. 10 will be a pre-sentation of “Gaudete in Carmini-bus: A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in the Romance Lan-guage Tradition,” at 1:30 p.m. in St. Ignatius Church. This Advent

tradition includes readings from the Christmas story and carols in Span-ish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Latin. It is presented in collaboration with the St. Ignatius Music Ministry, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Office of Residential Life, Maison Française and Casa Hispánica. A donation of $5 is sug-gested for the concert, which will be followed by a reception. For in-formation contact Ana Conboy at conboya@bc.edu.

That evening, Director of Bands Sebastian Bonaiuto will conduct the University Wind Ensemble in a free holiday concert, “A Christmas Festival,” at 8 p.m. in Gasson 100. This show of traditional Christmas music will begin with Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” and feature fa-vorites such as Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” and other well-known Christmas works. For information, e-mail bands@bc.edu or call ext.2-3018.

The following weekend, Dec. 16-18, Robsham Theater will host “Christmas Reflections,” a celebra-tion of the Christmas season through the performance of music, story and dance choreographed by Jesuit Art-ist-in-Residence Robert VerEecke, SJ. Times for the show are 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 16, 3 p.m. on Dec. 17 and 18. Admission to the event, spon-sored by Robsham Theater and the Institute for the Liberal Arts, is $15. For information, e-mail frvereec@bc.edu or call ext.2-6110.

For more on Boston College cam-pus events, see events.bc.edu or www.bc.edu/bcinfo

Musical performances, including “Gaudete in Carminibus” (above), abound at Boston College in the weeks before Christmas. (Photo by Justin Knight)

Celebrating the Holidays at the Heights

SEASONS THEY PASSBoston College held its annual Multi-Faith Thanksgiving Celebration Nov. 17, which included reflections by Sarah Bleicher ’13 (below), Reference and Instructional Services Librarian Syed Khan and Asst. Prof. Hosffman Ospino (STM). Attendees were encouraged to bake or purchase a gift of bread or other baked goods for the needy, which were col-lected for the “Spread the Bread” campaign.

On Monday, as the University community returned from the Thanksgiving break, BC electrician Stephen Vettori — watched by his Facilities Management colleagues — went to great heights for an important inspection in preparation for the annual tree-lighting ceremony that took place last night on O’Neill Plaza.

Photos by Sean Smith

Photos by Lee Pellegrini

Contact Rosanne Pellegrini at rosanne.pellegrini@bc.edu