Answering questions at Boston College O’Neill Library
Thanks so much for thinking of us! The doggos (no kitties) that visit us are all certified therapy dogs, which means they’ve been through a vetting process that reduces the risk of biting or other injuries. The certifying organizations also provide training for the dogs’ human companions, and help with scheduling & arranging. I’m sad to say BC policies force us to pass, but I hope you work out a way to connect your canines & felines with humans in need!
Hi! Good to see you!
There are many scales of attractiveness. The faculty member most attractive to an institution of higher learning is very likely the one with the most prestigious grants, fellowships, awards, and publications. A Nobel Laureate would be the academic equivalent of a Perfect 10. BC has only ever had one of those among its faculty: the Irish politician John Hume, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Northern Ireland peace process. As for current faculty, Juliet Schor is making waves in sociology & environmentalism, Elizabeth Graver and Paul Mariani are esteemed authors, and Amir Hovyeda is a star in chemistry. Many more than can fit on a 3×3 post-it!
That, too. Holding people to account and speaking up on your own behalf are both, when done with care and mindfulness, virtues to be pursued and not incompatible with each other.
Yes, cover-to-cover! I always enjoy the words and images of anyone taking their lives–interior and exterior–as seriously as they take the crafts of language and visual arts. Which Stylus provides, over and over.
The Wall does not judge the system, only describes it.
It’s possible, but not easy. “Boston College undergraduate students may apply for internal transfer to the Carroll School of Management for the spring of their sophomore year. The Carroll School accepts a very small number of internal transfer students via a lottery process.” See full details at bit.ly/CSOMtransfer
![More therapy dogs? [response: I want cats!]](https://library.bc.edu/answerwall/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/aw121418-3.jpg)
They are still coming: Saturday, Campbell will be here from 2 pm to 6 pm. Charlie will be awaiting your visit on Monday between 5 pm and 7 pm. And Sailor will end this semester’s visitations on Tuesday with a visit from 7 pm to 9 pm. [As I mentioned yesterday, we would love to have cats and other animals, but the university prefers we stick to dogs. But here’s another picture–Scarlet and Henry!]
Faculty are evaluated on research, teaching, and contributions to the university and the scholarly community. Student feedback and evaluations are part of that. bit.ly/bc-faculty-bylaws. Tenure was designed to protect faculty from being fired for not being popular with donors or governments, so whether students “like” a professor seems potentially like a similar issue. More info on tenure and why it’s useful: bit.ly/bc-tenure.
Sometimes, as with President Bush recently, it’s a federal law. But each state and commonwealth makes its own decisions, and my helpers who have lived elsewhere say the flags are at half staff more often here. Right now it honors President Bush, and a Massachusetts firefighter, Christopher Roy, who died over the weekend. If you’re ever curious, the state has a web page which will tell you why: bit.ly/bc-flag
Fr. Leahy usually asks other BC administrators speak on issues such as racism, and the BC administration has not been silent. After the most recent incident, the Provost, the VP for Student Affairs, and school Deans have all made public statements condemning racism and offering support to anyone affected by it.
Dope is in the eye of the beholder. Some things at BC that are totally dope: the Mods, therapy dog visits, the ALC showdown, the Chocolate Bar, BC Bigs, Mudstock, Ignite retreats… so hard to choose!
Alas! I am sorry to report they have come and gone this semester; they were at the Brain Break just after Thanksgiving. Watch for the Brain Break in the week after Patriot’s Day in the Spring semester. Perhaps in the meantime, you can enlist the help of a friend.
Everyone has a role at BC, and Fr. Leahy is ultimately responsible for everyone doing their jobs well. I can’t be certain why Fr. Leahy speaks about some issues and not about others, but I am certain that he makes sure the Provost addresses academic issues, the VP for Student Affairs addresses student issues, the VP for Human Resources addresses staff issues, and so on.
It’s not uncommon for Universities to restrict housing to members of the same sex in a given domicile. This prevents a number of tricky issues that would be likely to crop up otherwise (couple breaks up – who gets the room? parents of a student don’t approve of a living situation – how does the University handle that since most students here are legal adults? domestic violence problems could be exacerbated, etc.). Yes, it mostly assumes that everyone has “traditional” views on relationships, but it is successful in handling most of these potential problems.
Do you mean the employee lounge in O’Neill? I’m afraid it is limited to those who work at the library. And I have heard (we walls have a way of communicating amongst ourselves, you know) there are no snacks there except for those that staff bring in. (Which is why you will see staff at the same vending machines you use for snacks!)
According to the latest Factbook, at the end of fiscal year 2017, there were 2,326,205 books available from O’Neill Library. Defining what a “book” is gets kind of tricky (librarians love to nerd out on this stuff), but the oldest printed book in our collection is Jean Gerson’s De Spiritualib[us] Nupciis (On Spiritual Marriage). It has been digitized and is available to read online: bit.ly/BurnsOldestBook. The oldest item we have is a Mesopotamian clay tablet from 2000-3000 BC.
To be honest, I don’t know. I don’t think anyone has ever done a Christmas tree census on campus … maybe an idea for a GIS project for someone?! 8)
If you’re graduating, then you got an education and BC is not a scam. I don’t believe anywhere in its literature does BC claim to be a dating service.
I don’t speak skunk, and the walls of the mods speak a language so full of current argot and meme that I often hardly know what’s going on, so I’m sorry to say I don’t know the little mammal’s name. I do know about skunks, though: if there’s one, there are likely several. You’ll need more than one name. If you encounter one, speak softly & move away, to avoid becoming a threat to be sprayed.
