Boston College magazine

92 Pages·2002·16.1 MB·English

by  Boston College. Office of Communications

also: boxing DAYS / MR. blue notes
BOSTON COLLEGE
magazine 2002
WINTER
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IMAGININGEVIL
A CONVERSATION ABOUT ART AND BELIEF
PROLOGUE
Eichmann's feet
One winter day in the mid-fifties, a group of us fourth-grade rather small, and somewhat mashed by their years in pointy-
boys gathered during lunchbreak at the brick wall at the far toed boots and narrow shoes. The toenails were clipped
end of the schoolyard, a place far from the teacher monitors straight across and close, probably once a week, following a
warm bath.
who, with hands in coat pockets and cigarettes in lips, were
scanning the swirling games for evidence of trouble. Joined in
a rough huddle, we passed a photograph from hand to hand.
It showed Adolph Hider and a group of German officers. Primo Levi, who had the misfortune to become one of the
The Fuhrer was smiling, and the soldiers were smiling, and
20th century's most accomplished students of evil, once
everyone was dressed in uniforms and caps. The curious and noted that it was self-conscious artistry that distinguished
wonderful thing, though, was that while the soldiers stood in the real thing from all its wannabe cousins — like stupid bru-
polished boots, the Fuhrer did not, and one could therefore
tality or crude barbarism. "Arbeit machtfrei" over the entry
see that in fact he did not have feet but cloven hooves. The
gate to Auschwitz, was the sprightly touch of evil, as was the
story told by the boy who had brought the photo to school inmate orchestra that played Mozart while the doomed were
invited down from their railroad cars. In more recent years,
(claiming to have found it i n a d rawer in his father's desk) was
that Hider was asleep when word of a great victory reached
Levi's standards were nicely met by the Serbs who paraded
him, and he leapt from bed and rushed out to celebrate with naked Serb women before naked Bosnian male prisoners
his colleagues, forgetting to put on the jackboots that he used, and then dismembered the Bosnians who showed the slight-
under normal circumstances, to conceal his true genus.
est natural physical response. And biblically, the Serpent's
For those of us gathered at the wall, the evidence before use of Eve as a way to bring Adam to sin against God and at
our eyes, and the import of that evidence, seemed reason- the same time place a chasm forever between man and
able, salutary, even comforting. Like most well-raised and woman certainly makes the grade.
well-protected children, we were confirmed dualists: good I was mugged once, kidnapped once, and once knew a
and evil were the opposing powers that made life intelligi- sadist. But I am no expert on evil. Further, I c onfess to find-
ble, whether in Yankee Stadium, in the war with Interna-
ing it d ull, inert, platitudinous matter, like Eichmann's feet.
tional Communism, or in the Hopalong Cassidy shorts that
Auden, in my view, got it d isdainfully right in "September 1,
opened children's matinees at the neighborhood movie 1939": "I and the public know / What all schoolchildren
palace. That Hitler was Satan, and not human, made perfect
learn, / Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return."
sense given what we knew of his desires and bloody accom-
The accounting couldn't be simpler. The airplane aimed at
plishments— made more sense, in fact, than anything we the office lounge? The pension plan laid bankrupt? The
had been taught, or might have overheard or imagined on bomb in the rented truck beside the day care center? Not a
our own (or, frankly, would later learn).
problem. You may need to check back a f ew years, but some-
I'm not sure when my personal fling with dualism ended, where on a balance sheet or in an auditor's note you'll find
but the letdown seems to have been gradual, as happens in
the entry that seems to equalize the books: a pinched child-
most cases, and it was certainly complete by 1961, when
hood, an unjust treaty, a d og-toothed god who sends signals.
Adolf Eichmann — spectacled, sallow, diffident, the kid who I k now very well what theologians say about the mystery
gets picked last for dodgeball — went on trial in Jerusalem of evil. For me, however, goodness, not evil, is the mystery.
for carrying out Hitler's plan to have Europe's Jews killed as What complex logarithm could allow us to predict the tra-
quickly and as efficiently as possible. I was a teenager then, jectories oft he WTC stair climbers, or of those who stayed
and so I knew the world for what it was: a road accident, a behind with frightened colleagues? Or of those who called
the answering machine at home to swear unregretting love
folly, a joke that wasn't funny enough; and I knew as well
from the edge of eternity, or of those who backed away from
what Eichmann's feet were like. They were yellow-white
and clean, like wax on an old candle, with faint traceries of
crowded elevators, saying, "No, you first. Please"?
red and blue blood vessels alongside the slim, girlish ankles;
Our story on the art of evil, conceived long before Sep-
with arches that ached after a post-dinner walk or a trolley tember 11 but perturbed, like so much else, by the events of
ride on which Herr Eichmann was obliged to stand because that day, begins on page 20.
he had given his seat to an elderly woman. The toes were Ben Bimbaum
BOSTON COLLEGE *«#
magazine
WINTER 2002 VOL. 62 NO. 1
45
20 32
20 Art of darkness
DEPARTMENTS
Three writers on the nature of evil: the 2001 Boston
2 LETTERS
Co\\e,gd Atlantic Monthly symposium on belief and non-belief
NATIVE EVIL Kathleen Norris
4 LINDEN LANE
DEMON evil Joyce Carol Oates • Off campus • Urban
evil by CHOICE Nathan Englander renewal • Lab test • W ord
travels • Dear Jackie
32 Get busy, girlfriend • Public television • Fantasy
basketball
Carlo Rotella
51 ADVANCEMENT
Women's boxing has long been a sport. Now it may become
big business
42 The contender John Makransky, associate
professor of theology,
53 Q&A
on being Buddhist in the
Megan Gerson '00 was looking for a way to fill the long winter modern world
when she wandered into the Fairbanks, Alaska, boxing club.
Her e-mails home tell the rest
56 RPeOmSeTmSbCrRaInPcTe s
45 The improbable career
of Mr. Blue 57 CWoOmRiKcS b o&o k D AcYurSa tor
David Jay Gabriel '88
John Breslin, SJ
CLASSNOTES
Follows page 28
In 1928, Myles Connolly '18 created a J azz Age hero for young
U.S. Catholics. His peculiar literary creation survives
COVER
From the series Shadow by Arthur Tress. Additional images appear, beginning on page 20. All images © Arthur Tress, 1975.
LETTERS
BOSTON COLLEGE
SEPTEMBER 11 the fire department. My father ception atH oly Cross. He
magazine I j ust read the Fall edition of was at sea, serving as an had just been designated the
BCM, and I w ant to tell you ordinary seaman in the U.S. first recipient of a new chair
WINTER 2002 what a wonderful job you did Merchant Marine. Seven in creative writing.
VOLUME 62 NUMBER 1
in covering the 9/11 tragedy.
months later, his ship was tor-
EDITOR ROBERT W. BARRETT '61
Ben Birnbaum pedoed and sunk in the Newton, Massachusetts
I could hardly read the "Re-
North Atlantic. All were lost.
DEPUTY EDITOR membered" page through my
Anna Marie Murphy Human loss as a result of FOR THE BIRDS
tears; so many talented people.
Thank you for letting deliberate, violent acts leaves Primitive chic scales new
DESIGNERS
Annette Trivette parents know what steps the behind, I b elieve, a special heights of silliness when John
Melodie Wertelet
school takes when a tragedy grief and sorrow. Your child in Motoviloff writes of duck
PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR occurs. time will appreciate your
hunting ("Driftless, Wiscon-
Gary Wayne Gilbert sin," Fall 2001).
struggle and may think of his
PHOTOGRAPHER LUANNH. JENKINS P'03
or her care as a b urden.
Lee Pellegrini Nicholson, Pennsylvania When you look past the
Your child may not speak of romantic posturing, Mr.
CONTRIBUTING WRITER hero's choice Motoviloff is bragging about
Catherine E. Burke this, wanting not to add to
your sorrow. Therefore, as my the enjoyment he takes in
Tim Townsend's profile ("At
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Tim Heffernan Ground Zero," Fall 2001) mother let me know in differ- killing beings who bear him
ent words, tell your child no ill will and could not harm
of John McCann '99, a fire-
Readers, please send address changes to: fighter who worked in the that the blossoming, irrepress- him if they wanted to. If he
Development Information Services
More Hall 220, 140 Commonwealth Ave. wreckage of the World Trade ible, uproarious life, barely
wants to play-act at "satisfying
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
contained in that little body,
(617) 552-3440, Fax: (617) 552-0077 Center, is gut-wrenching.
the primitive hunger," there
www4.bc.edu/update.html
As a graduate of a top-ranked not only made the effort nec- are plenty of video games
Please send editorial correspondence to: university, McCann could essary— it made it possible.
that pander to our less civi-
Office of Marketing Communications have chosen work that was lized appetites. That way
Lawrence House, 122 College Rd. ROBERT B. COMIZZOLI '62
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 less risky and financially more Belle Mead, New Jersey no living beings will have to
die in his charade.
rewarding. But he chose to
Boston College Magazine
is published quarterly (Fall, Winter, work face-to-face with evil TEAMWORK NORM PHELPS
Spring, Summer) by Boston College,
with editorial offices at the Office and human fragility. My heart was filled with Silver Spring, Maryland
of Marketing Communications,
I saw Lower Manhattan
(617) 552-4820, Fax: (617) 552-2441 tremendous pride at the ex-
burn on September 1 1 . T here Editors note: Mr. Phelps is a
ISSN 0885-2049 pression of" lived community"
that characterized Boston
Periodicals postage paid at Boston, is a difference between watch-
program coordinator at the
Mass., and additional mailing offices. Fund for Animals.
Postmaster: send address changes to ing your city burn and being College on the morning of
Development Information Services at the seat of that tragedy. September 1 1 and in the days
More Hall 220, 140 Commonwealth Ave.
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 BC has graduated many peo- that followed. Thank you SECOND -YEAR ITCH
ple who have made it in the to William Leahy, SJ, and As an academic and career ad-
Copyright 2002 Trustees of
Boston College. Printed in U.S.A. world of business. But it has thank you to the team. visor at K eene State College
All publications rights reserved.
also graduated many others I w as saddened to learn in New Hampshire, I read
BCM is distributed free of charge who chose a more humble
that a student wanted to re-
to alumni, faculty, staff, donors, with great interest of Half-
and parents of undergraduate students. nounce his c itizenship because
and, in McCann's case, heroic
It is also available by paid subscription. time, Boston College's break
life. People like McCann of the faults he recognized in in the action for sophomores
bring pride to my alma mater. his country's leadership. He ("Time Out," Fall 2001).
would surely find comparable We have found that our
THOMAS H. ALTON '80
Brooklyn, New York failures in any other country.
www.bc.edu/bcm second-year undecided stu-
dents and lower-level transfer
BERNADETTE BEZAIRE, SGM, '67
NOW on bcm's web site: COPING Edmonton, Alberta
students are often our "for-
COMING EVENTS Based on my own experience,
gotten" population. As Leah
a campus calendar for BC I w ant to offer advice to sur- SEATED POET
Piatt's article mentioned, first-
alumni and friends viving parents raising young An added bonus for me in the
year students are embraced
children. I w as born in 1940. Fall 2001 issue is the poetry
plus • f urther readings by Orientation, juniors have
In 1 942 , o ur home burned, of Robert Cording, Ph.D.77 decided on and are pursuing
• photos • l inks » d iscounts
from the BC bookstore and we (my mother, her par- ("Married Love"). I met Mr.
a major, and seniors are in-
ents, and I) w ere rescued by volved in o utward transition
Cording in September at a re-
2 WINTER 2002
The names that we know
programs from career focus to ning of a great era for the that activities and achieve-
graduate program research. University. He engaged that ments would be included in of are, from Korea: Joseph
But what of the sophomores? controversy with intelligence the article. As my (telephone) Flarity '51, 1st Lt. US Army;
PATRICIA HALLORAN 78 and grace and went on to
interview with "Brucie" was Ronald Hickey '51, 2d Lt. US
Williamsville, Vermont many years of distinguished coming to a close I asked if Army; and Stanley Urbanec
she now wanted to know '52, 2d Lt. US Army.
leadership of Ithaca College.
whalen's gift Along the way, Jim Whalen about awards, honors, accom- From the Vietnam War:
I'm sure all the Newton Col- became a leading and respect- plishments, etc. H er response
John Coll, Jr. '66, IstLt. US
lege alumnae appreciated, ed participant in the debates Army; Michael B. Counihan
truly pleased me. She remind-
as I did, the acknowledgement on American higher educa- ed me that this article was '67, Sgt. US Army; John R.
about friendship — purely Davis '66, 2d Lt. USAF;
of James J. W halen's death in tion's most pressing issues.
the last issue of the magazine, A few of us (including this friendship. How nice. How
Louis D. Dobbin II '65, 1st
but I can't leave notice of writer) were influenced in our very, very nice. Lt. USMC; Steven Donaldson
his passing to a one-line an- career choices by his work. '68, 2dLt. USMC; James E.
CONNIE REGOLINO '56, MA'60
nouncement. PATRICIA M. BYRNE NC74 Brookline, Massachusetts
Dooley '64, Lt. USNR; Louis
Those of us who were
We lie s ky, Massachusetts A. Favussa '69, 1st Lt. US
Newton students during Dr. ONE OF SIX
A2rd m yL;t. JUoSh n A rFmiyt;z g iJbobsoenpsh 'X6.7 ,
Whalen's presidency came Editor's note: Ms. Byrne is vice I regularly see six alumni
to appreciate the wit and president for administration magazines, and BCM is the Grant '61, Capt. US Army
intelligence he brought to the and planning at Wellesley most impressive and relevant. (Medal of Honor).
College.
Congratulations on the fine Also, Daniel M. Kellett
college's daily life and the '64, IstLt. US Army;
controversies he engaged.
job you do for BC's alumni.
As a student, I h ad the chance Thomas Lufkin '66, Lt. (jg)
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
JAMES S. DOYLE '56
to argue many of the issues As a member of the group Bethesda, Maryland USN; Christopher H. Markey
featured in the summer 2001
of the times directly with Dr. '68, 2d Lt. USMC; Daniel
Whalen, and I a lways left A FEW GOOD NAMES Minahan '66, 1st Lt. USMC;
issue ("The Group"), I w ant
thinking he understood my to thank Boston College Maga-
Boston College's ROTC Michael J. M onahan '68, Pfc.
USMC; Edward J. M urphy
position better than I d id. zine for i ts focus on an im- detachment has been compil-
Jim Whalen was a presi- portant element of life: ing the names of alumni and '56, Maj. US Army; Richard
dent who never forgot he was friendship. I also want to former students who gave L. O'Leary '66, 2d Lt.
an educator. thank Charlotte Bruce Harvey their lives in service to our USMC; Dennis J. Reardon
Dr. Whalen's professional for her gende manner and her country. The eventual goal is '67, 1st Lt. USMC; Paul Sul-
career had only begun when sensitive wiiting. to add plaques for World War livan '65, 1 st Lt. US Army;
he completed the transaction In response to Patricia I, K orea, and Vietnam to
Richard J. S ullivan '63, Lt.
that transferred Newton Cruise's comment in her letter the World War II one already
USNR; Lucien C. Tessier '66,
College of the Sacred Heart to the editor in the Fall 2001 in Gasson 100. 1st Lt. USMC; and Michael
to Boston College, the begin- edition, I too thought, at first, We have, well-document- Vaughn '65, 1st Lt. US Army.
ed, the names from World
Many thanks.
War I and World War II. D. MICHAEL RYAN
Boston College
The difficulty has been with
COT A SECOND? Korea and Vietnam. For the
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that has? The editors of Boston former we have three names Correction: The campus scenes
and the latter, 21. We are sure
"there are no second acts in College Magazine would like on pages 7 and 9 of the Fall
American lives." Labor statistics — to hear from you. that there are more. 2001 issue were photographed
and even a perusal of the Class- It is our hope that BCM by Michael Mergen. In Works
notes pages in this publication — Please contact us readers will contact us with & Days, the photograph of
suggest he was mistaken, journal- By e-mail at: [email protected] the names we have missed. firefighter John McCann was
ists become musicians, fitness By fax at: (617) 552-2441
They can communicate with taken by William Moree.
trainers become engineers, By mail at: Second Acts
Capt. Brett Tashiro, Boston BCM welcomes letters from readers.
lawyers become stand-up comics. Boston College Magazine
Lawrence House College Army ROTC De- Letters may be edited for length
Have you staged a surprising sec-
tachment, inC arney #25; at and clarity, and must be signed to
ond act in your life? Do you know 122 College Road
be published. Our fax number is
a BC alumnus or alumna who Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 (617) 552-3230; or by e-mail
at [email protected]. i(s6 1 b7)i r 5n5b2a-2u4m4@1b; c .oeurd u e.- mail address
BOS ION COLLEGE \1 VGAZINE 3
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The layout of Boston, England's, BC. They haven't heard of us, either.
Over there
A VISIT TO THE OTHER BC
Boston is a small city of 50,000 lying on a broad plain
beside the English Channel, about two hours northeast
of London by train. Boston College — the other Boston
College — is a public institution serving about 1,500 full-
time students, ranging from teenagers completing their
GCSE studies (approximately equivalent to U.S. high
school) to twenty-somethings working at the university
level. I f irst ran into it on the Internet, but last Novem-
ber, on vacation in England, I d ecided to pay a real visit.
4 WINTER 2002
The train ride there took me through a perfect English achusetts— I h ad to show them my maroon-and-gold sweat-
landscape — sheep in broad pastures, small stone churches, shirt to prove that I w asn't putting them on — but at age 19,
they had a good sense of why they were in school. Stay at
fields greening with winter crops — making my arrival in
Boston all the more jarring. Exiting the station house, I
home, Dan said, and "you're either going to work on a f arm,
found myself at the lonely end of an empty cul-de-sac, star- or you're going to work at a packing factory." The others
ing at the blank rear wall of a dull brick warehouse. Rain nodded; Matt took a long, thoughtful drag on his cigarette.
splattered off the tarmac; traffic whooshed in the distance. I
"And that's a no-good choice," he said, and exhaled a cheer-
could smell a river, and something being fried, but there was less blue cloud. More nodding. Their fathers, it turned out,
no sign of a campus anywhere.
do exactly those sorts of jobs, and don't want their sons to
Thankfully, the one other passenger who had disem- settle for the same thing. The guys had gone to school not
barked was a Boston College student. Carrie — overnight for a general education, but to learn a skilled trade. Though
bag in one hand, cell phone in the other — kindly introduced Boston College, England, does offer courses in the liberal
herself, and we agreed to split cab fare to the campus. On arts, many students — by far the majority I spoke with —
the way I e xplained what I w as up to; Carrie had never heard choose to study a vocation: auto mechanics, electrical work,
hotel management.
of America's Boston College, and she contemplated my chat
I asked Dan, Matt, and Chris what they did for enter-
about "cross-cultural encounters" quietly. I a ngled for leads:
Maybe there was a pub or rec center where students con- tainment in B oston. "Well, there's a skate park," said Matt,
gregated? No. Maybe a coffeeshop? No, again. A McDon- after some thought, "but it's got no lights at night, so you
ald's, even? Carrie shot me a sympathetic look, the sort can't use it much." There's also a swimming pool, universal-
ly scorned by the college students because it has no diving
reserved for the hopelessly lost. "I'm sorry," she said, and
board and is frequented by families with young children.
laughed, "but there's absolutely nothing."
Any dance clubs? "They're rough at night," said Chris. Dan
seconded that view, and then urged me to watch a docu-
mentary of t he town put out by the BBC a few years ago.
That's not quite fair. Boston, I f ound out, is re-
ally just a n overgrown English farm town, with a mix of me-
Apparently it's mostly about street fights.
dieval and more recent architecture and a midsized seaport
Boston, England, is not an easy place to love, but the stu-
a short walk from the town center. Enough people live there dents Is poke to, for all their griping, seemed unwilling to
to support some light commerce: a florist, several inns, a give up on it, o r themselves. A young woman studying to be
stationer, the requisite pubs. Produce and poultry are raised a beautician, after bellyaching at length about the bores of
in the outlying fields, and a few fishing boats still ply the
country life, told me flat out that she "wouldn't live in Lon-
Channel. There's not nothing; there's just not much to in- don for money." She hoped, in fact, to stay in the area after
terest the a verage young adult. getting her degree, and many of her classmates will stick
around as well.
Boston College itself consists of three small campuses a
few blocks apart, tucked into the seaward edge of town and
separated from the main road by an enormous public field.
Academic departments are housed in concrete buildings of 1 Called. IOr a taXl in the late afternoon, and when I
1960s vintage; there's a cluster of low-slung dormitories and slumped into the seat, the cabbie asked me how my inter-
a small cafeteria done up in bright yellow and orange. views had gone. He was the same man, of course, who had
Most students were in class when I a rrived, so I w andered given Carrie and me a lift that morning. We got to talking
around getting a feel for the place and wound up in the li- about my experiences in England, and then about his expe-
brary. An a dministrator there described the student body for
riences in A merica — he'd gone to the University of
me. Boston College, England, she said, serves three types of
Delaware in the 1970s, and sorely missed "those enormous
student: local residents; commuters from up to a hundred
sandwiches" he used to have for lunch. Hoagies, yes: After
miles away; and foreign students, predominantly Chinese.
three days of starving on Britain's ungenerous portions, I
The English students are often the first in their families to missed them, too. Boston College, England, had not been
go on in school, and tend to come from small farm towns.
what I expected, I told my driver — I'd been ready for some-
The Chinese students also tend to be the academic pioneers thing like those classic British institutions, Cambridge and
of their families, but are for the most part urban: They grew Oxford. Too much Hollywood in my diet, I mused. My
up in Hong Kong or Beijing.
driver nodded in agreement. "Now, you're from the Boston
When classes let out for lunch, I headed out to mix with
College over there, right?" he asked. I affirmed; he knew
the students. I m et Dan, Matt, and Chris, three undergrads
something about us, then? "Well, no," he said. "I've only
from Boston proper, under the eaves of the main building.
just heard of it. What's it like?" 7/V// Heffernan
They, too, had not heard about the Boston College in Mass-
Bos l<)\ COLLEGI M VGAZESJE 5
THEY'RE BACK
The Boston College Citizens Seminars helped redefine Boston once
the city — have changed as the BC's College of Business Ad-
city has changed, adapting to ministration. Joyce s aw in
Boston's needs and opportuni- Boston's grim condition an
ties since the University began
opportunity for the University
them nearly 50 years ago. to create a forum for the
Some changes are apparent
city's leaders on neutral turf —
from a glance around the while simultaneously enhanc-
room. (A photograph of the
ing BC's prominence.
first seminar, held in Boston
THE FIRST IO YEARS or so
College's Fulton Hall in 1954,
of the seminars were enor-
captured a wide sea of middle-
mously successful, and they
aged white faces above dark
have taken on something of a
business suits.) Others are re-
flected in t he questions of the
mythic aura in Boston leader-
day and the resources at ship circles. Out of them
hand — now aimed at managing came plans for the Prudential
and sustaining growth rather Center, the expansion of
transit lines, a new Govern-
than at stemming a city's de-
cline.
ment Center, a revitalized wa-
Patrick Purcell, publisher terfront, the r enewal of the
of the Boston Herald and the market district, and more
current chairman of the commercial construction than
Indicators of progress: Boston Globe editor Martin Baron, left, and Greg
Watson, vice president of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, at Boston College Citizens Semi- the city had seen for a genera-
the December 12, 2001, meeting of the Boston College Citizens Seminar nars, made clear in a short his- tion. By t he 1960s, Boston
had recovered economically,
tory he g ave how far the city
has come with the aid of the and Boston College had
become a highly visible agent
seminars. "In the 1950s," he of change.
When Boston Mayor Thomas
my State of the City speech," said, "Boston was in a slump."
M. Menino stepped to the This was an understatement; What followed, however,
he said, "we broadcast it in
podium in a downtown hotel seven different languages. in the 1950s, the city was on was a period of stagnation. In
one morning last December to Could you imagine that in the the verge of bankruptcy. Inad- the 1970s, with the big work
address the most recent
equate schools and services of rebuilding Boston complet-
1950s? No way."
Boston College Citizens Semi- Delivered to a crowd of were driving residents into the ed, the creative energy of the
nar, he f ocused at length on suburbs. The manufacturing Citizens Seminars dissipated.
some 400 of the city's civic, po-
litical, and b usiness leaders industry was being decimated "Once the city rebounded,
the city's ethnic and racial di-
versity. Speaking to the topic drawn together by the Univer- by outside competition. The there was less of a need for
"Metro Boston in the New shipping industry was being
sity, the M ayor's comments
anybody to push an agenda,"
Global Era: The Dynamics of garnered enthusiastic applause, weakened by labor strife. And says Peter Rollins, executive
the individuals in a position to
Change," Menino noted with and not just because the atten- director of corporate and gov-
pride that one of every four
dees happened to be highly di- help — the city's Irish political ernment affairs at BC's Carroll
Bostonians was born outside verse. The subtext was that the leaders and Brahmin business- School of Management and,
the United States and that
Citizens Seminars — which, men— clung to an historic dis- for the past decade, one of the
more than 140 languages are two or three times a year, bring trust of o ne another. main architects of the semi-
spoken in the metropolitan Boston movers and shakers In stepped W. Seavey
nars. "The power structure
to bear on issues pressing to
area. "Last year, when I gave Joyce, SJ, then the dean of stopped coming. Attendance
6 WINTER 2002
the Boston Foundation, the
dropped. The people who mayors. So basically what hap-
showed up were lower on the pened was that the seminars City of Boston /Boston Rede-
velopment Authority, and the
totem pole." Some of this was a became an untapped resource."
consequence of a changing It is with this history in Metropolitan Area Planning
Council.
economy: Corporate consolida- mind that the seminars' plan-
tion had moved the headquar- ners in r ecent years have been
ters of s everal large companies trying to forge a new viability. THE NEW SEMINARS are de-
out of Boston. Furthermore, They have made the seminars signed to f ace a new threat.
more inclusive, expanding "Boston has rescued itself from
much of the work in civic plan-
the invitation list to involve
ning had devolved to the state the oblivion into which it ap-
members of smaller civic and
and local governments.
peared to b e headed," Paul
"The seminars did remain neighborhood organizations Grogan, the director of the
Boston Foundation, said at the T. Frank Kennedy, SJ
kind of a meeting place," says and emphasizing audience par-
Jim Lehane, the executive ticipation, which in the past seminar. "But we have to be
was limited to a brief Q & A careful of the complacency of
assistant to University Presi-
dent William P. Leahy, SJ, and SUCCESSION
session. "Instead of having 60
good times." Boston's current
a l ongtime observer of the or 70 businesspeople gather- problems — sprawl, traffic and Associate professor T. Frank
seminars. "But you weren't ing," says P eter Rollins, "now transportation congestion, per- Kennedy, SJ, '71, has been appoint-
getting breakthroughs any- you have a true gathering of sistent poverty and social ed director of the Jesuit Institute.
more. You had other organiza- community activists — people stresses, inadequate school per- A scholar of early Baroque music
on the front lines in the metro formance— cannot be fixed
tions, you h ad the Vault" — the and chair of BC's Music Depart-
secretive twice-weekly meeting Boston region." Meanwhile, quickly with an infusion of cap- ment, Fr. K ennedy succeeds
of influential Boston execu- the University has been joined Canisius Professor of Theology
ital, as many of the city's earlier
by some powerful cosponsors: problems were, Grogan and Michael Buckley, SJ, who held the
tives— "and you had strong
post for the past decade.
NOT RETIRING
The Social Security Administration
has more than doubled its grant
to the Boston College Center for
Retirement Research in the current
academic year, resulting in a total
award of $2.1 million. The center,
headed by Professor Alicia H.
Munnell, funds research into and
disseminates information about
retirement policy issues.
CLUB PRIVILEGES
The Boston College Club has pre-
sented a$ 20,000 check to the
University, establishing a scholar-
ship fund for Boston inner-city stu-
dents. The money represents BC's
first revenues from a profit-sharing
agreement between the University
and the club's management firm,
Club Corporation of America. "We
didn't expect this to take place for
At the table in the foreground, seminar participants were asked to discuss ways to improve race and ethnic about 10 years," club cofounder
relations in Boston. Elsewhere in the room, table talk focused on such topics as voter participation, workforce devel- John F. Joyce '57 said. The Boston
opment, affordable housing, protection of green and recreational spaces, and access to health care. College Club was founded in 1998.
ISOS I < )\ ( Ol I !■<,! \1 \(, \/l\l 7
others suggested. If the perti- emphasis he places on change ment, housing, public health, conversations were often heat-
nent question asked at the first from below and on the capaci- public safety, technology, and ed, and it was telling that
Citizens Seminar (by then ty of i ndividuals to make an transportation. A draft of the many complained they were
Mayor John Hynes) was, Can
"extraordinary social impact." first Indicators Report, "The not given enough time to ac-
complish anything.
Boston "regain its former place But even grassroots orga- Wisdom of Our Choices," was
as one of the prosperous, nizers require resources, presented at a Citizens Semi- They weren't supposed to,
forward-looking cities?" then and the more diverse the par- nar in 1 999, and the final re- explained Massachusetts
BlueCross BlueShield Vice
the pertinent question in De- ticipants int he seminars are, port premiered at a Citizens
cember (raised in a multimedia the more essential it is that Seminar in 2000. New reports President Peter Meade, who
presentation by the Boston they share a sophisticated view will be issued every two years served as moderator. The pur-
Foundation) was, "What is of the city in all its parts. In until 2030— Boston's 400th pose of t he new seminars is not
anniversary.
to hammer out infrastructure
your vision for Greater Boston recent years, the Citizens
Seminars have been working The symbiosis between
in the 2 1st century?" plans, but to advance discus-
It was a patient, all-comers with a state-of-the-art tool: the Citizens Seminar and the sion and to trade information.
type of question, and that was the report of the Boston Indicators Project was most
Or, as Boston College's Peter
exactly what the planners in- Indicators Project. The Indi- apparent at the concluding
Rollins puts it: "We don't need
tended. They had chosen the cators Project is a citywide co- session, when the individuals to build skyscrapers or banks
keynote speaker — Malcolm operative effort, sponsored by in the audience, seated in anymore. We need to look at
Gladwell, a staff writer at the the Boston Foundation, that roundtable subgroups, were
New Yorker and the author tracks data and trends in 1 0 asked to focus on one aspect of the base issues." Daniel B. Smith
the 10 indicator fields (e.g.,
of The Tipping Point: How Little aspects of city life: civic health,
Things Can Make a Big Differ- cultural life and the arts, Changing Housing Needs, Daniel B. Smith is a freelance
writer based in Boston.
ence (2000) — expressly for the economy, education, environ- Family Self-Sufficiency). The
CORN — La Legende du Mate, a
1942 watercolor, is on display
in Andre Masson: Inside/Outside
Surrealism. The exhibit of works
from the Cotlieb Collection —
the personal holdings of former
Canadian ambassador to the
U.S. Allan Gotlieb — is featured
at Boston College's Mc Mull en
Museum of Art through April
28, 2002. The show contains
more than 90 pieces spanning
Masson's career, including
prints, sketches, and four
important painted works. For
more information, please call
(617) 552-8587, or visit the
McMullen Museum Web site
at www.bc.edu/artmuseum.
8 WINTER 2002