C-SPAN visited campus to film a class on American women in the 19th century, given by professor of history Heather Cox Richardson as part of her course “Race, Riots, and Rodeos: America from the End of the Civil War to 1900.” At its 140th Commencement, the University conferred 2,175 undergraduate and 1,330 graduate degrees. Ernest Moniz ’66, U.S. Secretary of Energy, was the Commencement speaker. Other honorands included St. Boniface Haiti Foundation founding president Nannette Canniff; Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management managing director and Boston College Club chair John Joyce ’61, MBA’70; Maria Eugenia McGowan, principal of St. Matthew Catholic School of Phoenix, Arizona; and Fr. Emmanuel Mwerekande, MA’06, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Uganda. The 2016 Edward H. Finnegan, SJ, Award, the University’s highest undergraduate honor, was presented to Marissa Marandola ’16, a political science major, 2015 Truman Scholar, and editor of the undergraduate research journal Elements. She will enter Harvard Law School in the fall. Among the parting words spotted on mortarboards at Commencement: “My turn to take care of mom and dad—I’m a nurse”; “Time flies when you’re an eagle”; “Obrigada mãe, gracias papi”; “Now can I take a nap?” AHANA alumni returned to the Heights for RECONNECT II, a four-day celebration that included networking sessions, a “throwback Thursday” gathering, and presentation of the inaugural Keith A. Francis ’76 Inspiration Award, honoring the late University Trustee who conceived RECONNECT in 2009. The Athletics Department announced that it will retire the jerseys of quarterback Matt Ryan ’07 (now with the Atlanta Falcons) and linebacker Luke Kuechly ’12 (Carolina Panthers), the most-decorated defensive player in team history. Athletics also announced the launch of a marketing effort to increase awareness of University sports among Boston-area residents. Charles Engelke, a research astronomer at the University’s Institute for Scientific Research, weighed in on the debate over what’s causing the unusual dimming of the star KIC 8462852 (a.k.a. Tabby’s Star). In a letter to nextbigthing.com, Engelke posited a megamirror system as the explanation. Digest is in the dark. Stanton Wortham, the Judy & Howard Berkowitz Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, was named the inaugural Charles F. Donovan, SJ, Dean of the Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch School of Education (LSOE). A past associate dean of academic affairs at Penn, Wortham succeeds Maureen Kenny, who will rejoin the LSOE faculty after five years as dean. The tapas menu at the Stuart Dining Hall received a Best Menu award in Food Management magazine’s best concept category. Gautam N. Yadama, assistant vice chancellor for international affairs and professor in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, was named dean of the School of Social Work. Yadama, whose research has focused on the social and environmental challenges of the rural poor in South Asia and China, will succeed retiring dean Alberto Godenzi. With the campus largely student-free, the Office of Facilities Management undertook 86 summer projects, among them renovations to the organic chemistry teaching labs in the Merkert Chemistry Center, new backstop netting for the ice hockey rink, decommissioning of hundreds of Edmond’s Hall stoves, fridges, and washer/dryer units prior to the building’s demolition, and final renovations to the 17-story residence hall at 2000 Commonwealth Avenue, which will open for 540 students this fall. To furnish the landscape surrounding another new residence hall, at 2150 Commonwealth Avenue, crews planted 95 trees and more than 4,000 shrubs. Thomas D. Stegman, SJ, associate professor of New Testament and chair of the ecclesiastical faculty at the School of Theology and Ministry, was named the school’s dean. He succeeds Mark Massa, SJ, who will become director of the University’s Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life. Among those earning undergraduate and graduate degrees at this year’s Commencement were 67 University employees, including housekeeper Filipe Martins, who earned a bachelor’s degree in corporate systems, and Dining Services employee-relations officer Marcela Norton, who received a master’s in administrative studies—both from the Woods College of Advancing Studies. In a national ranking of undergraduate finance programs by USA Today, the Carroll School of Management placed third. Nine members of the Class of 2016 received Fulbright grants to pursue research or teaching experience overseas. Destinations include the Philippines, Germany, Cyprus, Belgium, and South Africa. Three other undergraduates received support from other institutions for study abroad—in China, Chile, and South Arica—during the summer. Associate professor of psychology Alexa Veenema hosted 19 family members at a Bring-Your-Parents-to-the-Lab Day, where undergraduates demonstrated behavioral neuroscience experiments taking place in the Veenema Laboratory.

—Thomas Cooper

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