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Theater department promotes creativity and experiential learning, B10
The Dramatics Society broke the fourth wall with their unique take on All that is Left Behind, A10
Baseball drops an extra-inning matchup during its three-game skid at Wake Forest, B2
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The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College
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Monday, April 22, 2013
Vol. XCIV, No. 21
Ongoing core renewal prompts reexamination of Honors Program BY MARY ROSE FISSINGER Heights Editor In early April, all Honors Program students received an email from Polis president Devon Behrer, A&S ’13, inviting them to a “State of the Honors Program” discussion, at which they would think about the “future of the program and how the core re-evaluation may affect the program.” Although the event was postponed indefinitely due to schedule complications,
the discussion over the current state of the Arts and Sciences Honors Program is one that has been occurring consistently throughout this academic year and even earlier among faculty, students, and administrators. The question of what role the program does and should play at the University was rendered even more pertinent when the core renewal process required Boston College to examine all courses that currently count toward core credits. In fact,
it was for precisely this reason that David Quigley, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, refrained from appointing a new director of the Honors Program after Mark O’Connor stepped down from the position in the summer of 2012. “At that point, because I knew that we were ramping up to a core renewal process, it did not make sense to me to appoint a new director,” Quigley said. “Anyone I would want to appoint as a director would want to hit the ground running, and would
start thinking about how to build on Mark’s successes and make something of a mark on the program, and because I knew that in a year or two there were going to be some minor if not major changes to the University core, it did not make sense to put in place a new director for this academic year.” In the meantime, because Honors is not a department but rather a program that operates under the A&S dean, Quigley himself has assumed the role of acting
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director of the program. While serving in this capacity as well as co-chair of the Core Renewal committee, and even before as an occasional professor in the Honors Program, Quigley has engaged in conversations with students and faculty both within and without the Honors Program about the program, its strengths and weaknesses, and how it fits into the mission—and by extension the core curriculum—of BC.
See Honors Program, A4
BC’s GLBTQ issues subject of ‘Ignites’ BY MARY ROSE FISSINGER Heights Editor
GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR
University coordinates to keep school running during citywide lockdown BY ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT News Editor
GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Students celebrated in the Mods after the manhunt ended (top). A BCPD officer shook hands with a student as others clapped and looked on (bottom).
On Friday morning, students at Boston College were asked to remain inside their dorms as the search for a suspect in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings continued. Governor Deval Patrick had requested that all residents of Boston, Watertown, Newton, Cambridge, Belmont, and Waltham shelter in place while the Boston Police Department and the FBI conducted its search for the suspect in the bombings. The stay-in-place order was lifted shortly after 6:30 p.m. that day. The hours of all campus dining halls were limited on Friday, and the Flynn Recreational Complex was closed for the day. Shuttle service was suspended. All of Friday’s athletic events, including camps scheduled by women’s soccer, women’s basketball, and men’s basketball, were canceled. The vigil organized by Danielle Cole, CSON ’15, and Michael Padulsky, LSOE ’15, intended to commemorate the victims of Monday’s bombings and scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday afternoon, was canceled as well.
See Lockdown, A4
After last September’s BC Ignites event accomplished exactly what creator of the event and Special Initiatives Director of the UGBC Community Relations department Conor Sullivan, LSOE ’13, hoped it would, he decided to do it again. This semester’s BC Ignites will take place tonight on Stokes Green at 7 p.m. and will highlight students’ experiences with GLBTQ issues at Boston College. The first event took place in O’Neill Plaza on the evening of Sept. 24, 2012, and was structured in the same vein as Take Back the Night, featuring three student speakers. The idea was to spur discussion on campus about racial diversity at BC, and so Sullivan selected three speakers with very different takes on the topic to present their opinions about whether racism exists at BC and, if so, what the student body can do about it. From the event’s inception, Sullivan had hoped to develop it into a series of forums, each on a different aspect of diversity, and he became determined to carry out this vision when he saw how well-attended the first BC Ignites was. “After the event, I realized that the format was successful, and I thought it was appropriate to start looking at different diversity topics to spread it to,” Sullivan said. Within days of the first event, he began planning the second by exploring what aspect of diversity was most on the minds of the BC student body. After talking with student leaders and administrators, he realized that focusing on GLBTQ issues seemed to be the logical next step for the BC Ignites series. Just as for the first event, he sent out emails to student leaders asking them to
See BC Ignites, A4
BCPD to hire five civilian dispatchers for next year
WZBC will celebrate its 40th year
BY ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT News Editor
BY JENNIFER HEINE Heights Staff WZBC, Boston College’s radio station, will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Apr. 24 with a spring concert at the Middle East Downstairs restaurant and nightclub, featuring musical artists Javelin, Howse, and Saint Pepsi. The event reaffirms the station’s commitment to new and innovative music, and demonstrates its longstanding importance not only at BC but also in the Boston community. Although it often flies under the radar on campus, WZBC has become a BC fixture, catering not only to BC students but much of Boston. “We were conceived in the 1970s,” said Nicholas Benevenia, the station’s general manager and A&S ’14. “In 1973 we became an FM station. Most of our
ALEX GAYNOR / HEIGHTS EDITOR
WZBC, whose office is pictured above, will host a 40th anniversary concert on Wednesday. listenership comes from the Boston area, and not from Boston College specifically.” Although WZBC is staffed entirely with BC undergraduates, it welcomes contributors from the local community, some of whom have been hosting radio shows for much of the station’s history. “What’s interesting is the division of involvement,” said Erika Bjerklie, program director and A&S ’14. “We have both students and community
DJs, some are alumni and some have been around since the inception of the station 40 years ago. The station is student-run, but we couldn’t do it without the community involvement.” Benevenia attributes much of this dedication, as well as WZBC’s longevity, to its mission. “We’ve always been on the cutting
See WZBC, A4
This fall, police officers at Boston College will be aided by five full-time civilian dispatchers working in their headquarters. “BCPD will be adding civilian dispatchers to our communication center at Maloney Hall,” said John King, director of Public Safety and BCPD police chief, in an email. “Presently we have two police officers at dispatch during busy periods. In the future we will have a dispatcher and a police officer when two staff members are needed. This will allow us to deploy the second officer to patrol the campus and respond to calls.” King said that five people would be hired as civilian dispatchers to join the Dispatch and Communication Division within BCPD. The department cur-
rently consists of a large staff which includes gate attendants, security officers, communications officers, and support staff. Both internal and external candidates have been interviewed for the open positions. “Several have previous public safety dispatching experience,” King said. “Dispatcher schedules will cover 24 hours a day, seven days per week.” King anticipates the positions to be officially filled soon after Commencement this year. “Dispatchers will help to provide greater consistency given that they are assigned to dispatch as their primary duty,” he said. This personnel shift will result in organizational changes when dispatches are received, but will not necessitate any additional construction on or restructuring of BCPD headquarters, apart from routine upgrades of alarm and dispatch technology.