PREMIERE
Dying to Save His Generation: Nkosi's Legacy, a documentary film directed by David LaMattina '03, premiered at Cambridge's Brattle Theater on September 29. The title refers to Nkosi Johnson, a South African AIDS activist who died of the disease in 2001 at age 12. During spring break 2001, LaMattina followed the stories of three women and their children living at Nkosi's Haven, a home established in Johnson's memory near Johannesburg for mothers with AIDS. The Jacques Salmanowitz Program for Moral Courage in Film, which is based in BC's Fine Arts department, provided funding.

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• The Jacques Salmanowitz program

Photo: David LaMattina '03. By Lee Pellegrini



RANK AND FILE
Boston College placed well in several national education rankings this fall. Kaplan/Newsweek named BC one of its "12 Hottest Schools," based on recent improvements in selectivity, and U.S. News & World Report rated BC 40th among national universities. BC also returned to U.S. News's Best Value list, placing 47th. The Carroll School of Management entered the Wall Street Journal's Top 50 list for the first time, placing 48th. Additionally, U.S. News ranked CSOM's undergraduate program 31st in the nation, and its undergraduate finance department 13th.



BRIEFING
In what has become an annual event, undergraduate researchers in the sciences at BC held poster sessions on September 27, to coincide with Parents Weekend. Most students reported on the progress of investigations begun over the summer in campus laboratories or in the field. In all, 36 projects were represented, in the areas of biology, chemistry, geology, physics, geophysics, and biochemistry. In the atrium of recently renovated Higgins Hall, Michael Raher '03 (above, right) discusses with computer science professor Peter Clote his investigation of proteins involved in pre-embryonic development and in mechanisms of cancer. Raher, who works with BC biologist Laura Hake, is one of two BC undergraduates whose research is supported by the prestigious Beckman Scholars Program.

Photo by Lee Pellegrini.



OPEN HOUSE
From September 15 through October 12, BC's Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life hosted 15 scholars from Muslim-majority countries, in a project developed by Boisi Center director Alan Wolfe and BC sociologist Patricia Chang. The goal of the project, partly funded by the State Department's Bureau of Educational Affairs, was to familiarize Muslim scholars with the ways in which diverse religious beliefs flourish in American society. The visitors attended informal gatherings of faculty and students, as well as lectures and workshops with politicians, social scientists, and theologians.

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• The Boisi Center



PAINLESS
The Connell School of Nursing's planned graduate program in nurse anesthesia was accredited in October by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs. The first students in the 27-month course of study will start in January 2003. Graduates of the program will receive a master's degree in science and will be eligible to sit for national nurse anesthesiology certification exams.

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TALKING POINTS
In a 10-point statement released September 5, the Christian Scholars Group (CSG), a conference of Catholic and Protestant Biblical scholars, historians, and theologians sponsored by BC's Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, affirmed the existence of a covenant between God and the Jewish people. The statement also condemned the proselytization of Jews by Christians and recognized the importance of Israel to Jewish history. The CSG created the document partly in response to Dabru Emet, a corollary statement on Christian-Jewish relations released two years ago by Jewish scholars.

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ON EXHIBIT
Cowboys, Indians, and the Big Picture, an exhibit currently at BC's McMullen Museum of Art, highlights 150 years of the art of the American West. The show includes 10 pieces from the collection of museum benefactor John J. McMullen. Also at the museum is Reclaiming a Lost Generation, a collection of self-portraits by German artists of the interwar years, including Max Liebermann, Käthe Kollwitz, and Oskar Kokoschka. Both shows run through December 8. For information, call (617) 552-8587

• The McMullen Museum of Art

Photo: Herman W. Hansen, Cowboy Race (Going to Town), 1902 (detail). Courtesy Dann Coffey / John J. McMullen collection


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