The campaign

Part of Ben Birnbaum’s “Headway” (Fall 2008) has been in my head for months, and it came clear why, recently, as I read Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book Outliers: The Story of Success.

Mr. Birnbaum mentioned Boston College’s earlier days, when it was first “a useful neighborhood institution” in the South End and then a useful “local college” in Chestnut Hill, before becoming a world-class university. Of that progression I am as proud as he is.

What I miss—as surely Boston does, as well—is that useful local college that in 1952 took an aimless, miseducated kid from Dorchester and turned him into a young man on fire to learn. That old Boston College couldn’t do it all, but it made me a reader, a thinker, a Naval officer, a journalism student at Columbia University, a recipient of a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, and a competitor in the high octane world of national journalism (Boston Globe Washington bureau, Washington Star, Newsweek, Military Times, a shared Pulitzer Prize).

Gladwell’s Outliers is filled with examples of kids whose potential is squandered. In one passage, he writes about successful (Group A) and unsuccesful (Group C) kids who started with the same intelligence quotient scores:

“The As overwhelmingly came from the middle and upper class. Their homes were filled with books. Half the fathers of the A group had a college degree or beyond at a time when a university education was a rarity.

“The Cs were from the other side of the tracks. Almost a third of them had a parent who had dropped out of school before the eighth grade. . . .

“They lacked something that could have been given to them if we’d only known they needed it: a community around them that prepared them properly for the world.

“The Cs were squandered talent. But they didn’t need to be.”

I know young Boston College graduates who are spending their early lives dedicated to helping the Cs. I known that Boston College (like the rest of the best) is struggling to find ways to serve these kids too. And I know that the useful “local college” of the 1950s had a Jesuit community and a small group of dedicated lay men (they were all men) who rescued many, many Cs. I will always be grateful.

Jim Doyle ’56
Bethesda, Maryland

Boston College’s “Light the World” campaign falls somewhat short with respect to one of its stated objectives, namely “education for talented poor and middle-class students who seek to be members of our community.” The only project described that appears to address that fundamental issue is financial aid for undergraduates. I suggest that a Center for Educational Financial Analysis be established, to study the grossly exaggerated, rising costs of higher education and the financial burden being placed on students and their families throughout the United States, with a goal being that Boston College leads the way to reducing educational costs without sacrificing quality.

Furthermore, a needs analysis of the Catholic Church suggests that the following centers also be added to Boston College’s lengthy project list:

• A Center for Adult Faith Formation Renewal, to promote increased participation and the practice of faith among Catholics, as well as the conversion of non-Catholics.
• A Center for Religious Life Formation, to invite young Catholic men to consider the priesthood and both men and women to enter religious orders.
• A Center for Catholic Evangelical Life, to promote Christ’s teachings.

Regarding the amount of money being sought by the campaign, I suggest that the ante be raised to $2 billion.

Joseph F. Manfreda ’59
Chicago, Illinois

Boston College’s new capital campaign is ambitious, but it was just such institutional ambition that made me choose BC over Ivy League schools 12 years ago. I cannot emphasize enough to my fellow Eagles, particularly the younger alums, how important it is that everyone, and I mean everyone, give even a little bit to the campaign. The percentage of alums who give factors into college rankings and thus the value of our degrees, and it unlocks matching gifts and other funds—not to mention that giving is the right thing to do, to help the next generation of Eagles “ever to excel” through a BC education.

Andrew Frey ’01
Miami, Forida

The nonprofit motive

Re “Alternate Route,” by Scott Sutherland (Fall 2008): Janet Bates, associate director of career counseling and education, is to be commended for founding the Non-profit Summer Internship Grant program that provides financial support to undergraduates interested in interning with a not-for-profit organization. The experiences made possible by this important program provide a foundation for careers in public service.

Boston College should expand the program to more than five students a summer to work inside organizations and agencies that commonly lack resources to hire talented undergraduates. The nonprofit sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the U.S. economy. More importantly, nonprofits can provide BC students with careers that support underserved individuals and communities, arguably an important part of the mission of a Jesuit institution.

M. Scott Knox, ’96
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Devine’s hand

Ben Birnbaum’s article “Of Service” (Fall 2008) captured the essence of Tom Devine’s personality and what made him such a force on campus. As a consultant who did a lot of work on the Boston College campus while Tom was the vice president for facilities management, I came to know Tom well. As Mr. Birnbaum states, he was conspicuously tough and actually tough, and he never wavered from the desire to achieve the best possible outcome for Boston College. His commitment inspired us to do our best work.

Joseph T. Geller
Boston, Massachusetts

Club fund

Thank you for mentioning the Boston College Club’s 10th anniversary in BCM’s Fall 2008 issue (”Home Plate,” by Terry Byrne ’81). Owing to the Club’s great success, the Boston College Club Scholarship Fund has been able to finance scholarships for five students currently at Boston College—two in the Connell School of Nursing and three in the College of Arts and Sciences—ranging from the Class of ’09 to the Class of ’12.

John E. Joyce ’61
Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts

Editor’s Note: Mr. Joyce is the Boston College Club’s chairman of the board.

Second crossing

Several letters published in BCM’s Fall 2008 issue addressed my article, “Border Crossed” (Summer 2008), and I would like to respond:

First, the fact that crossing the border has become more difficult hardly means that the federal government’s policies
are “effective.” Undocumented migration has dramatically increased despite the government’s policies, which have simply laid the groundwork for much suffering and death and for the increasing dominion of sophisticated, powerful, and ruthless smuggling cartels.

Second, the fate of Annunciation House’s guests and others similarly situated varies considerably. Migrant workers’ experiences range from horrendous exploitation in meat-packing factories and as day-laborers, to steady if low-paying work in the service sector, to well-paying jobs in construction, to give a few examples. In most cases, migrants who reach the U.S. interior and establish themselves enjoy significant improvement materially over the life they left behind. In all cases, however, they live in the shadows.

There is much suffering and exploitation in the entire process of undocumented migration, some of which I detailed at length in my article, some of which I did not (for instance, the debilitating effects on families and on the culture in Mexico and Central America). Much of this could be alleviated by not placing those who come to this country to offer themselves as grist for our demanding economic mill in the position of having to “violate [U.S.] sovereignty,” as one letter writer put it.

In that vein, Annunciation House vigorously advocates for comprehensive immigration reform that would provide for reunification of families, substantially increase the availability of visas for “low-skilled” labor (with increased protections for the workers), and legalize many undocumented workers who are already here.

Charles Vernon ’98
Tucson, Arizona

English majors united

In Fall 2008, Diane Van Dyke ’93 wrote concerning what she and her husband considered to be a liability in gaining meaningful employment upon graduation, namely that they both had been English majors. They seem to have made do with their diplomas, but they might be interested in an organization called P.O.E.M., the Professional Organization Of English Majors. It was founded by Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor. P.O.E.M. T-shirts are available on the Prairie Home Companion website.

Robert N. Sillars P’82
Wilmington, North Carolina

Editor’s Note: Liz McCartney ’94, the subject of “Homeward Angel” by Kate Moran (BCM, Fall 2008) was named CNN Hero of the Year in an award ceremony that aired on the Cable News Network Thanksgiving night, November 28, 2008. McCartney received $100,000 for the St. Bernard Project, which she co-founded and which has rebuilt some 150 homes in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, since Hurricane Katrina. Addressing a global audience from the stage of the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, McCartney urged, “Together we can continue to rebuild families’s homes and lives. . . . If you join us, we’ll be unstoppable.”

BCM welcomes letters from readers. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and must be signed to be published. Our fax number is (617) 552–2441; our e-mail address is bcm@bc.edu.