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things to do on campus this week

CAB will host a Stuff-a-Bear event in O’Connell House on Upper Campus and the Stuart Yellow Room on Newton Campus at 5 p.m. on Monday. Attendees can make their own stuffed eagle, puppy, or penguin.

Monday, September 10, 2018

The Study Abroad Fair will be held at 8 p.m. on Wednesday in Conte Forum. There will be over 100 tables for foreign partner universities, program representatives, returning students, exchange students, BC faculty, and Office of International Program staff. Students can explore programs in over 30 countries.

Students can meet representatives from over 140 companies at the Fall Career and Internship Fair from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday in Conte Forum. There will also be opportunities to speak to career coaches.

NEWS BC Professor Sheds Light on Proposed Title IX Changes BRIEFS Daya For Stokes Set The Campus Activities Board (CAB) announced at halftime of Saturday’s Boston College football game versus Holy Cross that Grammy Award winning-artist Daya will headline Stokes Set on Sept. 15. Now in its third year, the fall concert will be held on Stokes Lawn, and doors will open at 5:30 p.m. Daya is an American singer-songwriter specializing in pop and dance music. Most famously, she served as the featured artist on The Chainsmokers’ “Don’t Let Me Down,” for which she won a Grammy for Best Dance Recording, and on RL Grime’s ”I Wanna Know.” She released a self-titled EP in 2015, as well as a full-length album entitled Sit Still, Look Pretty a year later. Although she hasn’t released a full project since then, she’s released singles in each of the last three years while also featuring on “Feel Good” by Gryffin and Illenium. Tickets went on sale Monday online through Robsham Theater at 8 a.m., according to a promotional video posted on CAB’s Facebook page.

New Alumni Relations AVP Leah DeCosta was appointed as the associate vice president for alumni relations at Boston College this past summer. She most recently served as the director of alumni relations for the New York University Stern School of Business, which has 110,000 alumni. Before that, she worked in various administrative and organizational positions in BC’s athletics and alumni departments for over 10 years in total, including the director of alumni affinity and chapter programs. DeCosta also served as director of programs for the Special Olympics of New York Capital and North Country Region. She expanded the program’s scope to 12 counties and oversaw all operations and recruiting. She will now take charge of the BC Alumni Association, which aims to communicate with its 182,000 members worldwide. Before her, the role was filled by Joy Haywood Moore, BC ’81. Moore held the position for five years before succeeding Barb Jones, who retired in August, as interim vice president for Student Affairs. “Having started my professional journey at BC 16 years ago, I’ve been very fortunate to work with nearly every division throughout the University, which allowed me to learn the landscape of BC in deep, meaningful ways,” DeCosta said in a University press release in August. “Coming back to serve as AVP for alumni relations is not only an honor but has truly epitomized the best next step for me career-wise. It feels very much like I’ve returned home.”

WSJ College Rankings Boston College ranked 67th in the Wall Street Journal’s 2019 college rankings, falling seven spots after last year. Relative to schools with a similar overall ranking, BC did well in outcomes and student debt after graduation, but poorly in engagement, environment, and academic spending per student. Fellow Boston-area schools Boston University and Northeastern University ranked 36th and 69th, respectively. Notre Dame was ranked 26th and Georgetown 30th. BC was also ranked the 109th “Best Value” school, which is calculated by dividing the school’s overall score by its average net price.

By Charlie Power Assoc. News Editor

Almost 18 months into her tenure as education secretary, Betsy Devos is formulating new policies around sexual misconduct and college campuses, according to proposed rules obtained by The New York Times. The proposals include “narrowing the definition of sexual harassment, holding schools accountable only for formal complaints filed through proper authorities and for conduct said to have occurred on their campuses,” the Times article reads. Melinda Stoops, associate vice president for student affairs and BC’s Title IX coordinator, acknowledged some uncertainties over the future direction of Title IX policy, particular as it relates to sexual assault. “But what I can say, as people enter this academic year, that if you look at our policies, if you look at our processes, this information that is in the news today, isn’t going to have us make any changes to that at this time,” she said.

While at this moment, any new policies are a long way from being implemented, these proposals signal a possible direction the Trump administration will take Title IX policy, and the potential implications for BC are unclear. “We’re really two steps away from regulations,” said R. Shep Melnick, a professor of political science at Boston College and author of The Transformation of Title IX: Regulating Gender Equality in Education, which was published last March. “We have not yet seen the proposal, all we’ve seen is the Times report, which I thought was probably a good article, a fair description, but we don’t know, we haven’t seen everything yet,” he added. “And once those proposals are out there, there’ll be time for comments, and they’re going to probably change in important ways between the proposal and the final rule.” Title IX, which prohibits discrimination by sex in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance, is best known for

increasing the participation of women in college athletics. The statute, however, has been expanded by the regulatory activity of subsequent administrations since its passage in 1972. It now covers issues ranging from how colleges must respond to allegations of sexual assault to the more recent battles over transgender rights. Last September, Devos rescinded a 2011 “Dear Colleague Letter” issued by the Obama administration, which detailed how schools should respond to complaints of sexual harassment. While some supported the Obama administration’s steps to increase accountability, others saw the rules as an infringement on due-process rights for the accused. Stoops mentioned that Devos has met with a wide range of stakeholders, including representatives of people accused of sexual violence, and those who have raised questions concerning the rights of the accused. On the subject of due process, Melnick mentioned that the regulation has been criticized by a wide

variety of people of every political leaning. “From what I’ve gathered from reports on what they’re proposing is they’re going to make some modifications in the guidelines, especially on the question of due process, which is really crucial,” Melnick said. “Especially to bring the Department of Education’s interpretation more in line with what the Supreme Court has said, and to give schools more flexibility.” The Supreme Court defines sexual harassment as “unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a person access to the school’s education program or activity.” The Obama guidance was more expansive in its definition. It defined sexual harassment to include “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature.”

See Due Process, A3

UGBC Sets Budget at $329K, Seeks to Promote Efficiency By Jack Goldman News Editor And Samantha Karl Heights Staff

The budget for the Undergraduate Government of Boston College is set at $329,138 for the 2018-19 year, a $1,162 increase over the 2017-18 budget. The main goals for this year’s budget are to allocate and spend money more efficiently and reach as many students as possible during UGBC events, according to Annika Li, vice president of financial affairs for UGBC and CSOM ’19. “Our budget is very similar in size to last year, and so, we are trying to tighten the budget so that the money is going further,” Li said. Li’s key takeaways from this year’s budget are to bring quality events to campus in an attempt to improve UGBC’s repertoire, while showing the student body what each division of UGBC brings to campus. Any money that each division saves, however, will be reallocated back into that division’s budget—UGBC wants to reward efficient and effective spending among each division. “Just because they are delegated a certain amount of money per event, doesn’t necessarily means they need to spend that much,” Li said. During the process of creating the budget, UGBC’s officers placed an emphasis on encouraging different divisions of UGBC to collaborate on programs and events. Collaborating will save money eand bring larger events to campus, but also aligns with one of UGBC’s budget goals: increasing outreach to the general student body.

With a total of 84 events, 27 of which are new concepts, Diversity and Inclusion Programming (DIP) receives the largest amount of funding at $121,450, approximately an $8,249.64 decrease from what the department spent last year. “For DIP, we are funding slightly less than last year, but on the basis that its revenue will be poured back into DIP,” Li said. DIP funds the AHANA+ Leadership Council (ALC) Boat Cruise, the GLBTQ+ Leadership Council (GLC) formal, the ALC Ball, and ALC showdown—all popular events that could generate some revenue for UGBC that could be put toward increasing DIP’s margins as the year goes along. The Council for Students with Disabilities (CSD), which has been allocated $11,300 for this year, is one of the departments UGBC is most concerned with. CSD is relatively new, as it was founded in 2015, and UGBC wants to focus on growing this division. Although last year’s budget allocated $13,128 for the council, only $8,982.58 was spent, leading to an increase in terms of funds set aside for CSD over what was spent, although a lower allocation than, last year. Li said that, to encourage effective spending, UGBC wants CSD and GLC, with the latter budgeted at $24,750, to collaborate on some events. UGBC wants the two divisions to pool their resources so that together they can reach more of the student body—specifically raising awareness of the lesser-known CSD. Another increase appeared in the Undergraduate Leadership Academy (ULA) budget: ULA will be expanding its scope to offer events for freshmen beyond the 30 students that will join the program. ULA also added director stipends, which are

part of the Executive Council’s budget allocation. The increase in funds allocated to the Executive Council, budgeted at $52,125 which is just under $12,000 greater than last year’s expenditures, is due to those added ULA stipends, in addition to a slight increase of about $125 in the cost of the UGBC fall retreat. A year ago, approximately $49,000 was earmarked for the Executive Council without the ULA stipends, but only $40,000 ended up being spent. The stipend for the graduate assistant who aids UGBC is set at $20,000. Reed Piercey, UGBC president and MCAS ’19, has a stipend of $4,000, and Ignacio Fletcher, UGBC executive vice president and MCAS ’20, has a stipend of $3,500—those numbers are unchanged from last year. Each vice president that is a part of the council will receive a $2,000 stipend. In the past, each division has functioned as its own organization, and this year’s retreat was the first step to unify the divisions of UGBC, according to Li. This retreat was intended to set the tone for the collaborative environment UGBC is trying to spread throughout the academic year. Divisions of the governing body plan to put on events with a similar emphasis on collaboration—this time between UGBC and the BC community—for the BC student body. Student Initiative (SI) programming, budgeted at $48,650, covers expenses for events the Student Assembly (SA) puts on for the BC community, according to Li. She also mentioned that Fletcher specifically had his eyes on making the SI budget as efficient as possible while placing emphasis on bringing in the best speakers for high quality events. SI spent $51,617.83 on events in 201718, so the 2018-19 allocation is a decrease,

but that decrease falls under the same lines as DIP’s: Events could generate more revenues that can go back into SI’s coffers, funding future events. The ALC budget operates in similar fashion to the DIP budget: Funding is mainly set aside for established programming like the community dinner and other events geared toward the AHANA+ community, such as AHANA+ Celebration Week and the AHANA+ Summit. A few new programs will be announced as the year goes on, but like DIP, the council will receiving slightly less funding than last year in the hopes that incoming revenues can be cycled back into the budget to cover the costs of future events. Communications will receive $17,540 in funding—virtually the same number as it spent last year. The department will focus on reaching the student body to improve UGBC’s presence on campus, while providing marketing for new oncampus programming and events that the student body won’t be as familiar with. Finally, the SA will receive $7,968 in funding, Student Organizations (SO) will receive $2,425, and Financial Affairs will receive $450. The SA requires funds to cover its meetings and has introduced new funding that will target aiding implementation of senator initiatives, as well as buses for students to travel to Logan Airport and South Station at Thanksgiving and the March Madness Policy Bracket intended to encourage students to vote for projects they’d like UGBC to take on. Financial Affairs is the lone addition to the UGBC budget: The department has to address the cost of its own meetings and has been allocated $450 to do so. n

POLICE BLOTTER: 9/3/18 – 9/5/18 Monday, Sep. 3

Keyes North.

2:22 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Campion Hall. 8:55 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a suspicious circumstance at

Tuesday, Sep. 4 3:30 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Kostka Hall.

10:50 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a suspicious circumstance at Gasson Hall .Wednesday

Sep. 5

12:22 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding an underage intoxicated person

at Keyes South 2:28 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding an underage intoxicated person at Upper Campus.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

CORRECTIONS What’s your prediction for the rest of BC’s football season? “It’ll keep rolling. We’ll keep getting better as the teams we’re playing get better.” —Zachary Yorio, CSOM ’22 “I think we’re going to slowly go downhill. I don’t think we’ll win the Clemson game.” —Natalie Almoravid, MCAS ’ 22

“I bet they lose two games. I’m thinking Clemson and Virginia Tech.” —Erik Banda, MCAS ’22 “I think they’re going to keep winning. A.J. Dillon will help them pull through.” —Mariah Belisle, CSOM ’21

Please send corrections to eic@bcheights.com with ‘correction’ in the subject line.