With 35 members of the Class of 2009 among the 4,100 recent college graduates who will teach public school this fall under the aegis of Teach for America, Boston College will be the eighth largest contributor to the program among similarly sized universities. In a major act of prescience, second-year law student Mario Christian Lozada launched the world’s first Facebook page supporting the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court three weeks before Justice David Souter announced his intention to step down. Lozada told the Washington Post that he wanted to “have a voice.” Boston College became one of 700 institutions to sign on to the Yellow Ribbon program and offer institutional funds to supplement GI Bill benefits that fall short of meeting tuition costs. Twenty-five uniformed members of the marching band joined the Dropkick Murphys on stage at the Comcast Center for a Celtic-punk run-through of the Murphys’ signature tune “Shipping up to Boston.” A set by Aerosmith followed. Adam Roberts ’09, a four-year All American and 2012 Olympic hopeful, was named intercollegiate sailing’s “Sportsman of the Year.” Anthony Penna, CSS, ’70, a 17-year chaplain at Boston College, became the first non-Jesuit to direct Campus Ministry, succeeding James Erps, SJ, who became director of ministry at Loyola Marymount University, in Los Angeles. Andrew Nelson ’02, a vintage book dealer, walked away from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire with $50,000, after using his final “life line” to secure his understanding that the pua aloalo was Hawaii’s state flower. Boston College hosted 26 Israeli and Palestinian teenagers engaged in a three-week “leadership development” program sponsored by Massachusetts-based Artsbridge, Inc. The youngsters were taught to train their peers when they return to the Middle East. The Sesquicentennial Class of 2013 will be the first freshman class in Boston College history to include no students who intend to commute to campus from home. “The Psychological Construction of Pride,” by William R. Sugrue ’09, and “The Effect of Age on the Detection of Valenced Words,” by Liz Choi ’09, were among 30 theses and papers presented at the psychology department’s annual Undergraduate Research Conference. A record 5,200 alumni attended reunion, while 26,347 undergraduate alumni made annual gifts this year, another record, and more than 45,000 participated in alumni events around the world. Professor Mark Landy received the Phi Beta Kappa teaching award made by student initiates into the national honor society. Landy is the third political scientist to be honored in the award’s 20 years. The history faculty leads the field with five honorees. No “Digest” would be complete without reference to one academic ranking or another, and this edition’s entries come from BusinessWeek and U.S. News. The former placed CSOM’s overall undergraduate program at number 17 (with the accounting program at number one); while the latter placed doctoral programs in economics at 31, sociology at 41, and psychology at 66—up from 107 three years ago. Two juniors, Stephen Bohlman and Courtney McKee, were named Beckman Scholars for their work in biology and chemistry. An inaugural graduating class of 88 students was honored at the School of Theology and Ministry with a “Rite of Sending Forth”— attendees standing and extending hands toward the graduates in blessing. A record 56 faculty searches were conducted in 2008–09. Receiving honorary degrees at the University’s 133rd Commencement were award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns (he addressed the class), real estate developer Joseph E. Corcoran ’59, scholar Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, ’64, philanthropists Margo C. Connell and Carolyn A. Lynch, and Benaree P. Wiley, whose company, The Partnership, for decades championed and nourished racial diversity in executive offices in Boston. After four years of public hearings and meetings, the City of Boston on June 18 approved plans for the Lower and Brighton campuses that would lead to construction of a student center, “fine arts district,” recreation center, playing fields for baseball, softball, and intramurals, and sufficient residence halls to meet 100 percent of demand for undergraduate housing. On July 10, two Brighton residents sued the city and several of its agencies in an effort to reverse the decision. The Fulton Debating Society finished its year of competition in sixth and ninth places in two prominent national rankings. Liberty University topped both polls. Post Road, a literary magazine founded in 1999, which has made a specialty of featuring up-and-coming writers, published its 17th issue and the first under its new publisher, the Boston College English department. Cast members from the 1969 and 2009 productions of Sweet Charity mixed on the stage of the Robsham Theater following an April 25 performance. Among the elders were a couple who met during rehearsals and have been married for 38 years, and Nancy Turletes Murphy ’70 who held the mini-dress she’d sported in the “Big Spender” number 40 years earlier.

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