2012 basketball preview
The men’s and women’s basketball teams are looking to overcome inexperience to fight their way through the ACC, C1.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Vol. XCIII, No. 42
Phone center reaches out to alumni
Increasing hospitalizations prompt alcohol policy review Dean of Students Office examines drinking safety By Andrew Skaras Heights Staff
All across the United States, the legal age for the consumption of alcohol is 21. Breaches of state alcohol laws, however, are handled differently at universities across the 50 states. At Boston College, the alcohol policy is formulated by the Dean of Students Office (DSO). According to Dean of Students Paul Chebator, his office is concerned with the health and safety of the students, as well as following the law, when they design the school’s policy. “We’ve seen a rising number of students winding up requiring medical care because of alcohol overdoses,” Chebator said. “What we are also seeing is an
Senior gift team shoots for the record
increase in severity. It used to be that two-thirds of students who required medical care went to the infirmary and one-third went to the hospital. This has flip-flopped over the past three or four years, with more going to the hospital, meaning that they are more highly intoxicated.” In addition to the DSO, the Office of Health Promotion (OHP) and Eagle EMS have noticed similar trends. According to Alex Warshauer, president of Eagle EMS and A&S ’14, Eagle EMS has seen a significant increase in the number of transports. “I believe that the help-seeking policy has increased the number of transports significantly,” Warshauer said. “However, I don’t think the number of incidents is increasing—we are just getting called to more of them. While
See Alcohol Policy, A4
By Eleanor Hildebrandt Heights Editor
joseph castlen / heights graphic
BC refers a much higher percentage of students to alcohol-related disciplinary meetings.
four more years
Class of 2013 aims for 1,300 total donors By Mujtaba Syed For The Heights
“This year the class has been issued a unique challenge from University Trustee Drake Behrakis [BC ’86]: reach 1,300 donors and set a new BC record,” said Kaitlin Vigars, assistant director of annual giving at Boston College and BC ’08. “If the class reaches this milestone, Drake will give the University $25,000 to fund student programs and activities.” Vigars and other members of the campus community kicked off this year’s senior gift campaign last week. The campaign will run through the end of May 2013. Unlike a traditional fundraiser, the senior gift campaign focuses on specific contributions by members of the current graduating class toward BCsponsored courses of study, organizations, and activities. A tradition that has existed in some capacity at BC since the early 1960s, the senior gift campaign has allowed generations of students to impact the aspects of campus life that are most important to them. Pablo Beiro, A&S ’13, explained the senior gift campaign’s efforts to continue this tradi-
ap file photo
President Barack Obama won four more years in office Tuesday night, defeating former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in a closely contested election. Elizabeth Warren unseated Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senatorial election. For more on the election, see page D1.
See Senior Gift, A4
See Phone Center, A4
Football team tops the ACC in grad rates
BC Reads encourages leisure reading, reviews books online The club maintains a blog and volunteers at a local school
By David Cote News Editor
Boston College tied with Northwestern University for third in the nation for overall Graduation Success Rate (GSR), according to data released by the NCAA last week. The school received a 97 percent overall score for its 29 men’s and women’s varsity sports. “[The GSR] is absolutely essential,” said Brad Bates, director of athletics. “If your primary purpose is to maximize the development of students, a major part of that is that, if you have graduated from Boston College, then you have intellectually maximized your development.” The NCAA established the GSR as part of its academic reform initiative to assess and improve the academic performance and success of student-athletes.
“Tuition only covers about 60 percent of the cost of educating a BC student,” said Sara Eldridge, manager of the Boston College phone center. “Private support is really necessary here.” Consistently garnering between $5,000 and $10,000 in donations per night, with totals sometimes going upward of $20,000 depending on the alumni pool, the 60 to 80 BC students employed at the BC phone center work hard to earn that support. The BC phone center, located in the basement of the Cadigan Alumni Center on Brighton Campus, employs predominantly undergraduates to call alumni, parents of current and past students, and friends of the BC community to ask for donations to the University. The base salary for student callers is $8.50 an hour, and if students consistently work three shifts per week, they are awarded a bonus that raises their cumulative salary to the equivalent of $9.25 an hour. Students are trained by coming in for two or three shifts and listening in on other callers, going through a packet of calling guidelines, scripts, and procedures provided by RuffaloCODY, the Iowa-based fundraising company that has been utilized by BC for about 12 years, and then doing mock calls with the supervisors and with each other. Each work night, four student supervisors oversee approximately 25 callers each, with two supervisors working each three-hour shift. The supervisors listen in to calls and coach callers on areas to improve. Eldridge, along with the student employees, is employed and paid directly by RuffaloCODY. Besides scheduling hours, handling the payroll, and deciding which groups each shift will call, Eldridge also works closely with the Office of University Advancement and the BC Alumni Association. “We have higher-ups from the BC Fund, the umbrella fundraiser from the school, who will come in from time to time, both to sit in on calls and hear what we’re saying, and also to get feedback from us,” said Alex Schlatter, one of four student supervisors at the phone center and A&S ’14. “They’ll say, ‘What are you guys hearing on the phones? Do you guys have any questions for us?’” According to Schlatter, representatives from the Advancement Office will visit the call center on a regular basis, often preparing the callers for prospects’ reactions to or questions about events at the University, and shifting
By Sara Doyle Heights Staff
alex manta / heights graphic
BC tied for third in the nation for overall Graduation Success Rate among student-athletes. The GSR records the percentage of student-athletes that graduate at any one institution. It takes into account both transfer students and mid-year enrollees. BC’s score was bested by only Notre Dame, at 99, and Duke, at 98. “[Graduating] is prestigious because it’s rigorous,” Bates said. “Not everyone could do that. It certainly prepares
people to go out in the world and make it a better place.” The football team’s score of 94 was the highest in the ACC and third in the nation, as well as one of only nine Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs to receive 90 or higher.
See GSR, A4
Since its beginning as a student organization last year, BC Reads has given students at Boston College and the surrounding community a greater access to works of literature for leisure reading. BC Reads was started last year by DJ Adams, A&S ’13, and Christie Wentworth, A&S ’13, who found a mutual interest in reading for pleasure while studying abroad during their junior year. “When you’re abroad, you realize that you have a little more free time for
some of the things you’ve forgot about, and for me, that was pleasure reading,” Adams said. “Through mutual connections, we found that both of us were interested in starting this organization back on campus.” The club, which has 20 members, including 10 staff writers and three staff editors, has published reviews for 10 books so far. The reviews are published online in a blog at bcreads.weebly.com. Staff writers publish a new review every six weeks. “Our organization started with the idea of doing book reviews for students at Boston College,” Wentworth said. “They get to read books, and get something out of it. It has expanded since then.” In addition to publishing reviews, BC Reads is also involved in community outreach programs, such as a book drive
See BC Reads, A4