Campus Digest: Winter 2025
News and happenings from around Boston College.
Photo: Courtesy of the Saloman Family
Ron Saloman has never taken a single class at Boston College, but the ninety-one-year-old certainly has an A-plus attendance record when it comes to BC football. In September of 1957, Saloman, who lived nearby, was excited to attend the first football game ever held at Alumni Stadium—and he’s been in the stands for nearly every one that followed. In fact, the decades-long season ticket holder has been a spectator at 400 out of a possible 402 BC games at the stadium, and has journeyed to away games in twenty-one other states. (He missed one home game due to a family bar mitzvah, and the other while traveling home from a trip to Alaska—although he caught it on TV in the airport alongside actor Cuba Gooding Jr.) As for the BC Superfan’s favorite football player? That would be Doug Flutie ’85, because the 5’10” quarterback was “my size,” Saloman said. He may not be an Eagle himself, but Saloman, who played freshman football at Northeastern University and earned his Juris Doctor degree from Suffolk University Law School, thinks very highly of Boston College: He served on BC’s estate planning council and fondly recalls sharing steak dinners with former BC President J. Donald Monan, SJ. After receiving public recognition at his four hundredth BC home game in November, Saloman (who, incidentally, said he also attended the first games ever played by the Boston Celtics and the New England Patriots) plans to continue his attendance streak during the 2025 season for one simple reason. “I love good football,” he said. —Elizabeth Clemente
BC’s Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies has received a $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to establish a two-year pilot program designed to invigorate the faith and service practices of young people aged sixteen to twenty-nine. This funding follows another recent award from the foundation for $971,000, which will allow BC’s Church in the 21st Century Center to provide one hundred parishes with resources to strengthen children’s worship practices.
Beth Bolyn Thompson has been named vice president for development. Thompson arrived at BC in February from Harvard University, where she served as the assistant dean of development in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She has more than thirty years of experience in higher education and will work in support of the university’s $3 billion Soaring Higher campaign.
Boston College Prison Education Program Director Patrick Conway has been named the inaugural Ignacio Chair of the program. The newly named and endowed directorship was made possible through a gift by anonymous donors. Conway has led the program, which offers incarcerated students the opportunity to take college-level courses with BC instructors and earn credits toward a bachelor’s degree, since 2021.
Christine Murphy is the new associate dean for academic affairs in the Graduate School of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences. An accomplished researcher in chemistry, Murphy has held senior administrative positions in graduate education at Harvard and Princeton universities. Murphy will oversee several academic-related facets of MCGS including instruction, advising, and research.
BC has been named a Climate Leader by the Sponsors of Mass Save. BC was cited for its efforts to curb energy use, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and work toward a net-zero future.
Name: Critical Studies of Stardom and Celebrity
Instructor: Lindsay Hogan, associate professor of the practice in the BC communication department
Focus: The history, psychology, and cultural influence of fame
Ever find yourself flipping by a face in a magazine, wondering, Why is this person so famous? This popular senior course explores the history of celebrity, the impact of stardom on society, and how definitions of fame have developed and evolved through the centuries—from the great regard we pay to royalty and religious figures, to the influential power of social media personalities and the infamy associated with notorious criminals. “Who becomes known and what they become known for tells us a lot about societal values,” Hogan said. The course also considers how fame affects the rest of us, including how fandom fosters social connection and community. —Elizabeth Clemente
Boston College students now have a faster track toward making a positive impact in public health. Beginning as early as their junior year, students may now pursue an accelerated Master of Public Health degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. Made possible through a partnership between the medical school and BC’s Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, the partnership allows BC upperclassmen to take up to twelve credits toward the forty-two-credit degree before graduating from BC. Because the program allows for accelerated completion, students can earn the master’s degree in as little as one year, and the Tufts courses do not entail added cost to BC undergraduates. BC Professor of Biology Philip Landrigan MD, founding director of the Global Public Health program, said the new degree program is an exciting one. “We look forward to seeing our students take advantage of this incredible educational opportunity,” he said, “and go on to make a difference in the world of public health.” —Elizabeth Clemente
-v1c-700x475-40o.jpg)
