Answering questions at Boston College O’Neill Library
Tough decision, but, in general, it is easier to spend a significant period of time abroad during college than at any other time of your life. And it doesn’t have to be a full year; there are opportunities for a semester or just a few weeks, so you can still spend so much quality Heights time before you graduate. The Office of International Programs has some great questions to think it through: bit.ly/ShouldIStayOrShouldIGoNow
Short answer: you don’t. Athens is a system for managing logins to web resources, but BC uses a different system for our electronic subscriptions. If you’re looking at a book or article that wants an Athens login, you have probably arrived via Google. Usually, all you need to do is search for it at library.bc.edu, but feel free to ask my library friends for help.
First, find a friend. Second, see if the friendship develops into something more. Finding a boyfriend or girlfriend is basically the same process. If you are unsure where to find other gay/bi guys, you could start with BC resources: bit.ly/BCLGBTQ.  Even the Commonwealth has a website for LGBTQ youth: bit.ly/ma-lgbtq.
I have polled my library colleagues, and the response was mixed, a little like our recent round of precipitation. But I think “Yes” wins the day. With 57 responses, 37 responded “Yes, it’s pretty and/or fun & sometimes gives me a day off,” 3 responded “No, it is a curse I must suffer because I live in New England,” and 17 responded “Other.” Here are the comments that came with Other:
I suspect that Mod 4A is not much different than the other units. As for the residents of Mod 4A, I don’t know them so can’t comment on their coolness (but I have to say that BC students in general are pretty cool).
You’d need more guts than I have. Well, OK, I have no guts at all. But you’d seriously need to be able to handle the risks. I’m not going to take the role of financial advisor here.
It’s not a great idea, either for health or for academic success. Better to pace yourself. If all fails, there’s always caffeine, breaks to exercise, and getting a partner to help each other stay committed to the task and to stay awake. Then go see the CFLC (bit.ly/BC-connors) for academic coaching, so it doesn’t have to happen again.
A university president must be many things- fund raiser, cheerleader, lightning rod, planner, money manager and thought leader to name a few. Nobody can do it all well, so the best presidents surround themselves with talented experts. The management team at BC seems to be doing well in their various areas (endowment is strong, admissions remains selective, reputation is excellent), so I believe Fr Leahy is doing an overall good job. Can he do a better job? Sure, like everyone else.
6 !
The images on those posters don’t seem particularly representative of ordinary people, that’s for sure. If people decide to aspire to those body shapes, that’s a lot of potential failure, because human bodies are delightfully varied, and really shouldn’t be asked to fit such a narrow range of shapes. You might be interested in the anthology of essays The Politics of Women’s Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior (O’Neill Library HQ1206 .P56 2010).
Spend time alone. For real. Shut down social media for the day and go by yourself to a new place. Say take the T into downtown Boston and explore. You get the idea — the solo road trip. Other tips: rekindle a lost childhood friendship; spend time with an elderly relative; and tap into what gave you joy when you were a kid. Or join that club or organization (or get a job) you may have been too embarrassed or fearful to embrace in high school. And allow yourself to say no and yes.
No, I don’t. I’m a wall. I can’t even pick up a pencil, let alone sharpen it. These little pencils are carried here by my assistants from the containers at the Circulation and Reference desks whenever they notice they’re dull. If you notice they’re dull, it would be super-helpful if you grab a few from one of those desks, if you have the time and inclination.
A lot of people, they don’t think it be like it is, but it do. It could be worthwhile studying either the problem of evil (AKA theodicy: bit.ly/bc-theodicy1) or perhaps the liberation from suffering that is the goal of Buddhism (bit.ly/stanford-buddhism). Or any major religion, really – all of whom in some way attempt to come to terms with the question: why does suffering exist?
Yes, of course it is. Stop chasing the empty promise of future rewards. You are blessed with cake. Enjoy the cake you already have.
My helpers who have lived elsewhere are baffled that Bostonians treat air conditioning as optional. It’s very strange, especially given the Urban Heat Island effect.
![What is QSLC? [response: qual of student life committee]](https://library.bc.edu/answerwall/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/aw111418-1.jpg)
Your fellow student is correct: it’s the Quality of Student Life Committee. Their orgsync page (bit.ly/bc-qslc) says they’re about instituting change at BC by talking to the administration and distributing the Boston Globe and New York Times at Dining Halls. They meet on Monday nights in Gasson 209.
I’ve answered this once before, last Spring: There are dependable resources on political leanings of college students in general, such as the Panetta Institute surveys (bit.ly/panetta-surveys), and there are dependable measures of past voting by district, such as the CPVI (bit.ly/wiki-cpvi). BC’s district (MA-04) has a CPVI of D+9, which means it is 9 percentage points above the share of democratic party votes in the last two presidential elections. But there are few dependable college-by-college surveys. MyPlan.com (bit.ly/myplan-college-politics) ranks BC as 392/500 “most liberal” colleges and 112/500 of “most conservative” colleges, based on ratings by about 11,000 MyPlan.com users. Sound method? Doubtful. Do the math – if 500 colleges are rated by 11,000 raters rating their alma maters, that’s barely 22 raters per college on average.
Systemic racism is endemic to the US and institutions in it. I’m not sure quite what acknowledging that fact at BC would look like. BC has an Office for Institutional Diversity (bit.ly/BC-OID) that grapples with institutional racism with programs & resources, and recognizes that faculty and staff of color and students of color deserve additional support to contend with living with racism, through diversity and affinity groups. Of course, there’s always more that can be done; that’s the nature of institutional racism. Please contact the OID or other campus offices with your ideas about what should be done.
I recommend telling Dining Services: bit.ly/BCDiningComment
![[redacted] republicans](https://library.bc.edu/answerwall/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/aw111418-5.jpg)
