Chain-link fencing went up on the west and south sides of 94-year-old Gasson Hall to secure the building for exterior refurbishing, including replacement of virtually all the building’s cast stone roof ornaments. The project, which will intermittently silence Gasson’s bells, may last as long as 18 months, depending on weather. Boston College students placed 16th among 201 colleges nationally by recycling an average 27 pounds of trash each during a 10-week competition. Tuition for 2007–08 was set at $35,150. In what Professor Michael Resler characterized as a “tsunami year” for German studies, 13 seniors were awarded Fulbright Fellowships through the department, eclipsing the record of eight that was set two years ago. Law and undergraduate students founded nonprofit volunteer organizations to aid the poor in Macedonia and Nicaragua, respectively. John (Jack) Foley ’56, a founder of the University’s audiovisual department and who is believed to have held the record for years of continuous employment on the Heights, died on March 18, at the age of 78. Between 1948 and his retirement in 2006, Mr. Foley, noted a friend, “did everything at BC except say Mass.” Cheryl Presley, the popular vice president for student affairs for the past seven years, announced that she would be leaving Boston College in June to work full-time on her writing and research. A physicist, a chemist, a geologist, and two computer scientists have been awarded five-year career development awards totaling $2.5 million by the National Science Foundation. In a Princeton Review survey, parents of college applicants ranked Boston College as their sixth dreamiest “dream school,” behind Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Brown, and Notre Dame. A woman Law student (and undergraduate alumna) appeared in a photograph in a sports-n’-suds magazine distributed in Boston bars wearing a BC pennant and briefs, engendering a flurry of grave op-ed pieces and letters in the Heights. The Carroll School of Management’s undergraduate program was ranked 14th in the nation by Business Week. More than 700 students went on spring break service trips in March, including 631 participants in the Appalachia Volunteers Program. Infielder Johnny Ayers ’08 became the first human being to bat against Daisuke Matsuzaka in a Red Sox uniform, when the Eagles faced Boston’s newest local hero in an exhibition game in Florida on March 2. Matsuzaka had said weeks earlier at a press conference that his first pitch in the major leagues was going to be a fastball, and it was, and Ayers ripped it into left field for a double. (BC lost, 9-1.) In other Red Sox news, CSOM dean Andrew Boynton, asked by the Boston Herald to provide the Sox with management tips, warned against overvaluing “team harmony.” Thirty-one Irish studies scholars from around New England gathered cozily in the Connolly House living room on an April Saturday and offered five-minute presentations on works in progress, including these startling conjunctions: “Joyce and Wittgen­stein,” and “Swift’s Cannibals and the National Debt.” The annual Heights April Fool’s issue revealed that President Leahy had joined the men’s basketball team. “The geezer can ball, yo!” point guard Tyrese Rice ’08 allegedly said. Dialogue, a journal of high-minded literary essays, and Epicenters, an arts journal, joined Elements (a hard-case research journal) and Ethos (a hard-case bioethics journal) in the growing crowd of ambitious (and typo-free) periodicals invented, developed, edited, and published by undergraduate students. The annual Dance Marathon raised “$52,371.76″ for the Franciscan Hospital for Children, in Boston. “CEO hints Times Co. won’t sell Globe,” announced the Boston Globe the day after Times CEO Janet L. Robinson spoke at a Carroll School luncheon. “Times Co. chief won’t flatly rule out sale of Boston Globe,” said the Boston Herald. Seniors Allen Best and Mandy Castle became the first Fulton Debate duo-team to qualify for the National Debate Tournament in all four years of their college debate careers. The University’s debaters finished the year ranked eighth in the country. In an effort to foster “self-knowledge, reflection, and [mature] decision making,” the Boston College advising center will no longer accept declarations of majors by freshmen. Student groups at St. Joseph’s University announced that they would “adopt” the Eagles football squad, thus acquiring “a football team without the heavy financial burden,” noted Daniel Harris, who led the effort toward sentimental affiliation. Athletics has entered into conversation with administrators and students at the Philadelphia Jesuit institution about ticket sales. There is no word yet on whether modifications are planned to the St. Joe’s rally cry: “The hawk will never die!”

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