Category: Boston College

To BC? If a Jesuit institution with a sincere concern for your full personhood is where you want to spend 4 transformative years, apply. I hope you find the right college for you!

I am following up with my library helpers to get you a good list of recommendations!

And here they are:
1. “I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala,” by Rigoberta Menchú and Elizabeth Burgos
2. Saints of the Household by Ari Tison, Lizards Hold the Sun by D.H. Trujillo, Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
3. And check out the list from the Boston Public Library for books celebrating indigenous authors: https://bit.ly/bplindigenous

There are no perfect answers to this question. The Career Center (bit.ly/BC-career) has a bookable space. You could try booking a study room in O’Neill (bit.ly/ONeillStudyRoom) though they’re often booked days in advance & really intended for group study. I wonder if your dorm room during the day is quiet enough. Otherwise, perhaps try finding an empty classroom. Good luck!

I don’t know but I’ll try to find out.

If you’re tired enough, anywhere works. But! There are some comfy chairs in Gasson on the lower level, and of course O’Neill is chock-ful of comfy chairs. May I recommend the ones in the hallway to the 5th floor study area? We also have some older chairs here and there in nooks on the upper floors. I’ve seen many napping head-down on tables or even in the stacks, but those floors are hard, and you might prevent someone from retrieving a book located 6 feet above your sternum.

Restaurants and businesses think about that kind of thing as a cost of doing business when they set prices. So no, in the sense that there isn’t a separate punitive line item for it. But yes.

I asked my archivist friends and they said that in the Burns collections they’d have to choose a few becuase there are so many to love! Check out the VHS of a Tampa reunion, 1988 June, which includes a lively sing-along of “Charlie on the MTA” and other classics (https://bit.ly/burnstampa); the Rubricator for Pontifical Solemn Mass at the Throne, 1956 (https://bit.ly/burnsrubricator); A Gasson Hall plaster model (https://bit.ly/burnsgasson) . You can visit Burns to see these and more as well! 

The best I can do is send your feedback to Dining Services, which you can do as well: bit.ly/bc-dining-feedback. If they respond, I’ll post it here.

BC Dining Responds:

The plastic salad bowls are only a temporary substitution from our vendor. We will return to the biodegradable containers as soon as they become available.

This year’s Green2Go program allows students to opt for a free reusable to-go container instead of paper or plastic when they are eating on the go. It’s now available at Lower, McElroy, Stuart, Addie’s, and Eagle’s Nest. There’s no upfront cost, plus, students get 10% off each meal they checkout in a Green2Go container.

I may be biased, but I would have to say that O’Neill Library is the most *surprisingly* cozy & welcoming. The facade is new brutalism, but my supportive & kind library helpers and the comfy chairs give this building a warm heart. I’m more familiar with academic buildings, most of which are more grand than cozy, with the exception of the libraries, of course. I’m not as familiar with the residence halls. Maybe you all can rank them?

They are likely members of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) bit.ly/BCROTC

It can work, but it’s extremely unlikely BC will change that policy anytime soon, if ever. Res Life planning is based on Catholic ideas about sex and marriage (check the student code of conduct under “sexual activity” for a surprise), so short of a dramatic change in Church doctrine I wouldn’t expect that to change.

It depends a little on how you define your terms, but using my friend the BC Factbook you can look at summaries of BC’s finances going back a long way. Since you asked for a ratio I’ll answer broadly. If we define “faculty spending” as including BC’s line items for expenses in Instruction, Academic Support, and Research, the ratio of faculty spending to every other expense at BC has been very steady over the last decade. From 2014 to 2022 it has been as low as 41% in 2021 to as high as 44% in 2016. 1% of a billion dollars is still a lot of money. If you want to look at the details or define things differently, the Factbook and BC’s annual financial statements are available online. https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/offices/institutional-research-planning/institutional-research/fact-book.html

Tip O’Neill was a 1936 BC graduate who went on to a very distinguished career in state and national politics. He ran for and won John F. Kennedy’s House seat when JFK ran for Senate in 1952, and he served as representative for Cambridge and Boston for sixteen terms. He was elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987. BC honored him many times, and he attended the opening of this library in 1981. Here’s a virtual exhibit my colleagues over at Burns library did to comemorate his life: https://library.bc.edu/burns-exhibits/tip-oneill/

Savor it. Take time to enjoy the moments and not just think about the future.

Totally agree. BC was a different school when this library was built. It’d be great to have some more space for everyone, and for other stuff the library folk would like to do. Also, more wall friends for me.