The Heights will return on Thursday, Oct. 31. NEW BEGINNINGS
PAY IT FORWARD
SPORTS
METRO
BC football enters the second half of its season on the road at UNC, A10
www.bcheights.com
For The Heights With all the bright, ambitious students at Boston College, many could use an extra couple thousand dollars to fund their innovative projects and bring their ideas to fruition. This was the aim of Drake Behrakis, BC ’86, when he donated $25,000 this year to fund student initiatives at BC. Last year, Behrakis, a University Trustee, challenged the Class of 2013 to reach its participation goal for the Senior Gift Campaign, promising to donate an extra $25,000 toward student initiatives if 1,300 seniors participated. The Class of 2013 exceeded this goal and set a new record for senior participation, with 1,458 members of the senior class donating, surpassing the previous record of 1,333. Behrakis’ donation will be split between at least 10 student projects chosen to receive the Legacy Grants. These grants, which will be capped at a maximum of $2,500 per project, will be awarded three times this coming year in January, May, and December. Applicants should decide which period is right for them to apply, based on when they can begin to pursue their project. The application for the Legacy Grants, which can be found online, was released on Oct. 17, with a due date of Dec. 1 for all funding requests for the January grants. The application is straightforward, and mainly focuses on the nature of the project’s goals and its projected budget, detailing how the money will be spent. The grant review board is comprised of Gus Burkett, director of the Student Programs Office, Michael Sacco, director of the Center for Student Formation, and Kaitlin Vigars, assistant director of annual giving and BC ’08, as well as four BC students nominated to the committee by faculty and administrators. Student groups or individuals of all grades can participate, as long as a member of the University staff or faculty sponsors their funding request. Vigars said that 24 hours after the application period launched, the board had already received a number of applications. “We didn’t want to put too many stipulations on what we were looking for,” Vigars said. The Review Board isn’t looking to fund strictly academic or service projects, but is interested in a variety of ideas. “We want people to have been thoughtful about what they want to do, and see the project through to the end,” Vigars said. “We want to know what the impact of their project will be, and that the money granted will be well spent.” Implementing new initiatives such as the Legacy Grants has increased participation in the senior gift by over 200 percent.
See Legacy Grants, A3
established
1919
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Vol. XCIV, No. 38
BY REBECCA MORETTI
SCENE
From Alfred Hitchcock to Michael Jackson, The Scene traces the history of a cinematic movement, B1
HEIGHTS
THE
The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College
Legacy Grants seek creative applications
Mark Zuckerberg makes his first investment in ed-tech in a Cambridge startup, B10
3D EVOLUTION
CALDERON REFLECTS ON PRESIDENCY BY ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT News Editor
Felipe Calderon, former president of Mexico, came to BC on Wednesday as a speaker for the Clough Colloquium.
“As young Americans or Latin Americans, you may question whether it is possible to overcome the problems that concern your own nation,” said
ALEX GAYNOR / HEIGHTS STAFF
Felipe Calderon, the former president of Mexico. “In troubled times, you may ask yourself whether it is possible to change and to transform your country and do what is right to do for your people. And I’m convinced that the answer is yes.” On Oct. 24, Calderon spoke about his presidency, and what citizens can do to improve their own countries, in Robsham Theater as a guest of the Clough Colloquium. Calderon, a member of the National Action Party (PAN), assumed office in December 2006 after an extremely close election and served as president until Dec. 1, 2012. He is currently a visiting fellow at the
Harvard Kennedy School. Richard Keeley, undergraduate dean of the Carroll School of Management and director of programs for the Winston Center, approached the podium first in order to thank Bob and Judy Winston, as well as Chuck and Gloria Clough, for making Clough Colloquia possible. Interim provost Joe Quinn then introduced Calderon, mentioning that he had a somewhat personal connection with the former president, as his younger brother moved to Mexico decades ago. “He’s married, with three children, and he’s a Mexican citizen,” Quinn said. “Since his surname is Quinn, like mine, they’re affectionately known as the Mexiquinns.” Quinn continued to run through various achievements attained under Calderon’s presidency. He noted that Calderon is credited with boosting Mexico’s economic development and expanding welfare policies, judicial reform, construction of new universities, and reform in the country’s immigration policies. “[Calderon] prioritized access to health services—before his presidency, about 40 million people had access to public health,” he said. “Currently more than 100 million peo-
See Calderon, A3
Awareness month prompts review of disability resources Dean of Students Office to host three workshops this month BY NATHAN MCGUIRE Heights Staff About 1.3 million students in higher education have a disability, according to the World Health Organization. In 1988, Congress declared October “National Disability Employment Awareness Month.” At Boston College, three distinct offices serve students with disabilities: Learning Resources for Student Athletes, which serves only Division I student athletes; the Connors Family Learning Center, which supports students with learning disabilities; and the Disability Services Office, which works with students with medical, physical, psychological, and temporary disabilities. Paulette Durrett, assistant dean for students with disabilities, said that a range of resources and accommodations now support students who were traditionally unable to attend college because of a disability. Her office deals specifically with students who have non-learning disabilities. “Students who have anything from a concussion to diabetes come to our office,” Durrett said. “And our accommodations can be anywhere from exams to loaning equipment to coordinating contact with doctors.” Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits organizations receiving fed-
eral financial assistance, such as universities that receive federal loans for students, from discriminating against qualified individuals based on their disability. The act defines qualified individuals with disabilities as persons who meet normal and essential eligibility requirements, but who have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more life activity. Durrett said that BC is required by the law to make accessible services and accommodations for students with disabilities. “A student with a temporary physical disability would need transportation,” she said. “For students that have a [permanent] disability, the accommodations would depend on the disability.” For instance, students who are blind can register their disability with the office and would be able to complete audio exams for their classes. Durrett would contact a student’s professor to inform him or her of the student’s need for an accommodation. The professor would then be obliged to send the exam to the office, where it would then be converted into an audio file using a scanning program in the library. Durrett said for exams in math and science classes, where certain symbols or graphs may be incorrectly translated, students could opt to have someone read the exam to them. The reader, though, could only explain what they saw on the exam. Other services made available to registered students include interpreters for students with
See Disabilty on Campus, A3
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CATHOLIC HERALD
Kenneth Hackett, BC ’68, took over this week as the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.
Alumnus appointed new ambassador to Holy See BY DEVON SANFORD Assoc. News Editor Kenneth F. Hackett, BC ’68, officially took over as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See on Oct. 21, after presenting his credentials to Pope Francis. Hackett fills a role that had been vacant for nearly a year, according to the Catholic News Service. “The United States and the Holy See have converging interests that span a broad range of issues” including “a desire to promote human rights and social justice,” Hackett wrote the same day, in the first post of his official ambassador blog. “We both work to make a difference on
a range of important global issues such as trafficking in persons, interreligious dialogue, conflict resolution, food access and security, HIV/AIDS, and care for the environment. And I look forward to deepening, and expanding where possible, that collaboration during my time in Rome.” Hackett is a former president of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency. He joined CRS in 1972, after a post-college stint with the Peace Corps in Ghana and retired from his position as president of CRS in December 2011. Members of Boston College’s theology
See Hackett, A3
New course numbering system to be implemented next summer BY JULIE ORENSTEIN Heights Editor Beginning with course registration for the Summer 2014 term and the 2014-15 academic year, Boston College will transition to a new system of course numbering and catalog management, having outgrown the current UIS numbering system. A curriculum management advisory committee has recently worked to implement a new system that would more accurately reflect course levels and allow for increased standardization among numbers for language and common core courses.
Looking to institutions like Harvard as models, the committee determined that the Kuali catalog management system would fulfill these goals. Presently, the UIS system includes a two-letter prefix that indicates the department in which a course is housed, followed by a three-digit number from 001-999. The Kuali system involves four-letter subject codes followed by a four-digit number from 1000-9999. Many of the new subject codes are simply expansions of the current prefix, such as COMM for communication instead of CO. For other departments, the new lettering
allows for more specificity about a course. Many classes in the romance languages department, for example, will now be more precisely labeled SPAN for Spanish, FREN for French, and ITAL for Italian. Journalism courses, rather than falling under the general university department (UN) will now be indicated with the prefix JOUR. With regard to the course number, classes will be more clearly sequenced, as each range of numbers will correspond with a level of difficulty. Courses with numbers from 1000-1999 will be core courses as well as lower-level undergraduate electives and elementary language courses, whereas
numbers ranging from 3000-4999 will indicate upper-level major courses, upper-level electives, third and fourth year language courses, and advanced seminars and independent research. In some cases, the current UIS number reflects the course’s level of difficulty or preparedness required. With growing limitations on available numbers, though, many departments have been forced to give illogical numbers to new courses. Numbers representing courses that have been retired for at least five years can be reused, however, the number from a retired course may not necessarily correspond to
the difficulty of the new course to which it is being assigned. “Often we would have a new course come up, and had to use whatever number was available, even if it seemed too low or too high,” said Treseanne Ainsworth, assistant to the chair of the English department and director of undergraduate advising, in an email. “We just had to tell students not to go by the course numbers as an indication of ‘level.’” Ainsworth added that, while the new system does provide more flexibility in assign-
See Course Numbering, A3