SPOKEN LIKE A POET
McIntyre Professor of English J. Robert Barth, SJ, has recorded a CD of poems by Francis Thompson and Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ, to benefit the Burns Library. Samples may be heard at The Full Story, on the BCM Web site: www.bc.edu/bcm

• Order Fr. Barth's CD from the BC Bookstore

Photo by Gary Wayne Gilbert



FAST MONEY
A new service allows students to use their BC identification card to make purchases. In the Eagle Bucks system, which debuted in January, students can apply money from a bank account or credit card to their ID, and then use the card to buy items in the University bookstore, pay for laundry and delivery pizza, and purchase meals in BC dining halls. BC plans to expand the Eagle Bucks program in future years, making it valid at area businesses.



TOP DEBATERS
Fulton Debating Society members Ben Birely '05 and Christopher Schroeck '04 qualified for the National Debate Tournament, held March 23-26 in Springfield, Missouri. Birely was one of only five freshmen, among 156 contestants from more than 50 schools, to qualify for the prestigious event this year. Schroeck was invited as a freshman last year.

• Homepage of the Fulton Debating Society



VOLUNTEERS
More than 600 BC undergraduates participated in service programs over Spring Break, March 2-10. The Appalachia Volunteer Program sent a record 540 students to 29 rural communities in the eastern mountain states; the Ignacio Volunteers sent 14 students to Kingston, Jamaica; another 14 traveled to Nicaragua through a First Year Experience program; and 12 went to El Salvador with Campus Ministry. Projects included homebuilding, community outreach, and teaching. Other undergraduates remained in Boston, volunteering at soup kitchens and social services programs.



SHARP SUPPORT
The Lynch School of Education received a $1 million grant from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation of New York in January, for programs addressing the needs of urban schools. Half the grant will provide an endowment for the LSOE's College Bound project, which prepares disadvantaged Boston high school students for college through weekend and summer enrichment programs. The rest of the gift will provide college scholarships for 30 to 35 graduate students of color who commit to teaching in urban schools.



MONAN RECOGNIZED
University Chancellor J. Donald Monan, SJ, was honored in February by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. Monan received the Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, Award, which annually goes to a leader in Catholic higher education who has made "outstanding contributions to teaching, scholarship, and administrative excellence. . . and who has contributed to Catholic higher education beyond the bounds of his or her institution."



EASY ACCESS
The O'Neill Library continues to expand its collection of searchable electronic databases. Recent acquisitions include "Polling the Nations," a collection of current and historical public opinion surveys from more than 80 countries; FACTS.com, which contains the full text of Facts on File dating back to 1970; and "American Civil War: Letters and Diaries," an index of hundreds of first-person accounts of the Civil War including journals, correspondence, and memoirs. Anyone with a BC ID number can use the databases through the BC libraries home page.

• The BC Libraries' on-line database page



BUDGET ITEMS
The Board of Trustees approved the operating budget and tuition, room, and board fees for the 2003 fiscal year at a February 15 meeting. The budget increased 6 percent to $509 million, accompanied by a 4.5 percent rise, to $35,410, in total annual student fees. Financial aid increased by 5.7 percent, to $76.6 million. In explaining the rise in annual fees, trustees cited the need to recruit and re-tain top faculty, in addition to the cost of ongoing construction and information technology projects.



LONG FLY
A new study by associate professor of biology Clare O'Connor lends support to the theory that an organism's lifespan is limited by its ability to repair damaged proteins. O'Connor studied fruit flies with a genetic mutation that causes them to produce excess methyltransferase, an enzyme involved in protein repair. The mutant flies, she found, live approximately one-third longer than flies with normal enzyme levels. The study appeared in the December 18 Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.



LOST AND FOUND
The BC Police Department held its annual charity auction of unclaimed goods on March 23. Among the items up for bid: a couple dozen men's and women's watches, assorted bracelets and rings, a radar detector, several Palm Pilots, some 30 cellular phones, and this Analytical Concordance of the Bible, which sold for two dollars. The proceeds of the sale--$3,866--went to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Photo by Lee Pellegrini



IN THE RANKS
The Carrol Graduate School of Management moved up two places to 39th nationwide in the latest U.S. News & World Report graduate school rankings, released April 8. BC's Law School held steady at 22nd, and the Lynch School of Education graduate program moved up one spot to 21st. It is the only Catholic graduate education program in the top 40.

• The complete U.S. News & World Report rankings



GOOD SAVES
Recent changes in University facilities are expected to significantly reduce BC's consumption of electricity and water. Efficient lighting technology, including motion-sensing lights that turn off when not needed, will cut electricity use by an estimated 512,925 kilowatt hours per year. Low-flow toilets and showerheads are expected to cut daily water consumption by 115,000 gallons.

• Related article from the BC Chronicle



NEW HEADING
Thomas J. Keady, Jr., has been named associate vice president for government and community relations. Keady arrives from Northeastern University, where he served in a similar capacity for 15 years. He succeeds W. Paul White, who left BC in September after holding the post since 1997.



ROYAL NOD
Associate professor of physics Rein Uritam was made an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire on January 17 for his commitment to improving educational relations between the United States and the United Kingdom. Queen Elizabeth II recognized Uritam in particular for his tenure as president of the Association of Marshall Scholars, during which he increased the prestigious British scholarship's exposure with new publications and a symposium series.



CITIZEN CAINE
Rufus L. Caine III '03, a philosophy and political science major from Hackensack, New Jersey, has won this year's Martin Luther King, Jr., Scholarship. Caine was recognized for his leadership in last year's UGBC "Fight for Freedom" campaign, which raised money to free African slaves in the Sudan. The scholarship will cover three-quarters of Caine's senior year tuition.

• Related article from the BC Chronicle

Photo by Justin Knight



BRAIN TRUST
The Infography, an on-line database of scholarship in various fields, has given a BC Web site its Award of Excellence. The site, "Literature, Cognition, and the Brain," was created in 1997 by English professors Alan Richardson and Mary Crane, and features up-to-date research on the linked fields of literary studies, cognitive theory, and neuroscience.

• Homepage of "Literature, Cognition, and the Brain"


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