Emeritus professor of geology and geophysics James Skehan, SJ, published Roadside Geology of Connecticut and Rhode Island in the 36-book series that treats rock formations viewable from interstate highways and byways from Hawaii to Massachusetts—the latter also explicated by Skehan, in a 2001 volume. Backed by a coalition of University offices, Boston College students are participating in this spring’s RecycleMania competition against peers across North America and in India. Last year BC finished 12th nationally and second in Massachusetts based on the volume of recyclable material collected. Students held an interfaith vigil at the end of January for all those injured or killed during the Gaza incursion. A research team led by chemistry professor Amir Hoveyda and Nobelist Richard Schrock of MIT has discovered a class of powerful and versatile catalysts. Head foot-ball coach Jeff Jagodzinski was fired after he interviewed for the New York Jets’ head coaching job, setting off an Internet torrent of predominately anonymous reflections on the University, its athletic programs, and its personnel (not to mention the Catholic Church and the general moral weather). Ten-year defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani was named to lead the Eagles. Community members will soon be able to go online to view the location of GPS-outfitted campus buses before heading out to wait in the cold. Five members of the Lynch School faculty were named inaugural fellows of the American Educational Research Association. Also, the school’s Center for International Higher Education reported that faculty salaries were highest in Saudi Arabia and Canada. The University’s nascent Center for the Study of Home and Community Life received a $3.5 million grant from Atlantic Philanthropies. The center develops innovative, cost-sensitive programs for elder care. With 39 alumni serving in the Peace Corps, Boston College ranked seventh in the nation among similar-size producers of program volunteers. George Washington University led the list with 57 enrollees. It was also reported that 16 members of the class of 2009 signed on for a one-year placement with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. English professor Paul Lewis represented Boston in a tri-city debate over who gets to claim Edgar Allan Poe as their own. Balti-more and Philadelphia were the other contenders, and Philly won when the applause for its champion was judged loudest, not surprisingly, given that the debate took place in a room in that city’s public library. For more on this subject, see page 6. The University made Conte Forum available to several hundred local Muslims for a celebration of the annual festival of Eid al-Adha in early Decem-ber after the group’s usual venue turned out to be already booked. Unrelatedly, a graduate course titled “Towards an Abrahamic Family Reunion” was offered through the theology department this semester, jointly taught by Catholic, Presbyterian, Muslim, and Jewish clergy. The freshman class of 2014 will receive Boston College e-mail addresses but no storage capacity. The address will serve to forward e-mail to the accounts that students invariably arrive with and generally prefer to use. Boston College already maintains 42,000 forwarding addresses for alumni. The 2008 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, which is developed in the Lynch School and which generally garners worldwide headlines concerning such matters as the relative math abilities of Estonian as compared with Bahrainian 12-year-olds, this year brought good local news, with the Commonwealth’s fourth-graders placing second and fourth in worldwide comparisons of science and math achievement, and its eighth-graders placing third and sixth. Responding to an emergency call, campus police Officer Martin Curley put on portable oxygen equipment and climbed into a manhole on Lower Campus to rescue two construction workers who had been rendered unconscious by toxic fumes. The men were treated at local hospitals and released. Curley was honored during halftime at a Celtics game. Thomas Wall, associate university librarian at Duke University, has been named head librarian at Boston College. In a November letter to faculty and staff, President William P. Leahy, SJ, asked administrators across the University to transfer 2 percent of budgeted operating funds into a special account that was being set up to meet an expected increase in requests for student financial aid. The Wall Street Journal named Working Longer, by CSOM’s Alicia Munnell and Steven Sass one of “five books to retire by.” Most but not all of the University’s 10-year development plan was approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Greenlighted projects included recreation and University centers, academic buildings, and student residences (1,590 beds). A decision on the 150-student residence proposed for the Brighton Campus was postponed. Robsham Theater was filled nearly to capacity as students, faculty, and staff viewed President Barack Obama’s inauguration on a jumbo screen. “What is this, the North End?” a Heights writer editorialized, after Boston College raised its hourly visitor parking rate from two to three dollars.

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