The Boston College Office of Public Affairs
Boston College Chronicle  
Contact: smthsen@bc.edu
Date Posted: 9-5-97 
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Remarks by University President William P. Leahy, SJ
Annual Faculty Convocation Sept. 3, 1997
Robsham Theater
Boston College


	Welcome to the 1997 University Convocation and my first 
address to you as a seasoned president of Boston College --
that is, a man who always reads the sports pages first.

	As you know, I have spent a great deal of time during 
the last year listening and learning about Boston College, as 
I promised I would.  I would like to divide my remarks this 
afternoon into three parts:  1) offer some reflections about 
the past academic year and my experiences; 2) focus on five 
themes or issues which I believe we need to engage as the 
Boston College community; and 3) finally and most 
significantly, announce within the context of those themes 
that Boston College will over the next five years be making a 
$260 million investment in academic personnel, programs, and 
facilities.  It is an investment that is carefully designed 
to raise Boston College to an even greater level of 
distinction as a national university preparing students for 
an increasingly international, multi-cultural world and an 
institution ever committed to its Jesuit, Catholic mission 
and heritage.
 
	By so many standards, this was a wonderful year for BC 
and an enjoyable one for me. I could cite a hundred moments 
and accomplishments that would give any college president 
cause for pride and that, as each occurred, made me feel 
privileged to be here. This community has welcomed me with 
great warmth and good will.  Members of my family who were 
here last fall for inauguration still talk about their visit 
to Boston. 

	I have also been greeted warmly by our alumni and 
supporters on numerous occasions.  I don't know how many of 
you will ever experience this, but it is remarkable and 
humbling to find yourself the representative of an 
institution for whom people feel so profoundly. I have 
discovered in talking with alumni that when BC hurts, so do 
they. And when BC succeeds, they rejoice as if it had 
happened to their family.  They want us to thrive, to be a 
place of excellence, of distinction, and honor. And we are.

	We have made and are making great strides. The Class of 
2001 is the strongest in our history as measured by 
standardized test scores, and should again place among the 
top 25 freshman classes in the entire nation.  Three of our 
professional schools--Nursing, Law, and Education--were rated 
in the top 30 in their disciplines by the US News & World 
Report while the Graduate School of Social Work was ranked 
14th.  In fund-raising we set a record for total gifts 
received--$27 million.

	We had challenges too: the gambling violations by 
football players and other students, and the decision not to 
admit two students who were basketball players.  But we have 
addressed these issues, and I am confident that our new 
personnel in athletics will do their part to make sure that 
intercollegiate sports occupies its proper place at Boston 
College.  We intend to compete and be successful at our 
current Division IA level; there are no plans to downgrade 
intercollegiate athletics at Boston College. 

	But while athletics is important, academics are central.  
The final decision about the admission of student-athletes 
and all our students will remain in the very capable hands of 
John Mahoney and his staff in Undergraduate Admission.

	I am sure you recall the student protests of last 
spring, sparked by publication of a cartoon in the Observer 
that some found offensive.  Members of our community spoke 
out against the tone and content of the cartoon, as was their 
right and responsibility when faced with what they deemed 
hateful expression.  The protest soon broadened to include a 
call for more AHANA faculty and students and University 
recognition of a gay, lesbian, and bisexual student group.  A 
great deal of understandable emotion surfaced about these 
issues, and we should respond in a balanced, fair way to them 
or other concerns.  I think we all know that we need to 
improve our record in hiring persons of color and in 
enrolling students from varied ethnic backgrounds. 

	As regards gay, lesbian, and bisexual members of our 
community, I reiterate that every person associated with 
Boston College is entitled to a life among us of dignity, 
accomplishment, respect, and safety. And these rights will be 
protected by the University.

	Since last year, I have been asked more than once 
whether I would continue striving to be present to the Boston 
College community, and my answer has been yes.  If I could, I 
would lift Botolph House up and place it in middle of O'Neill 
Plaza.  I cannot do that, of course, partly because it isn't 
in Fred Pennino's budget. And it's not on the agenda of the 
Newton Board of Aldermen either.

	But my goal is to be at the vital center of Boston 
College in the years ahead, to be a participant as well as a 
leader in many conversations. In fact, you may consider my 
first announcement of this convocation to be that I have 
decided to establish what I am calling Conversations with the 
President.  Two or three times each semester, beginning this 
fall, I intend to ask groups of faculty, staff, and students 
to join me for several hours of informal discussion about 
Boston College. I very much want to continue the listening 
and learning I began a year ago.

	Part of what made the past year notable and useful for 
me was preparing for reaccreditation by the New England 
Association of Schools and Colleges and working to implement 
the goals expressed in the report of the University Academic 
Planning Council.  Such meetings helped me to understand 
Boston College and its opportunities and challenges in a much 
deeper way.

 	And that brings me to the second part of my Convocation 
remarks:  Boston College's future, specifically areas which 
require serious engagement by all of us if we are to thrive 
as an institution of higher education with our special 
mission and heritage.

	But first, let me say that the future of Boston College 
cannot be the past of any other university. History has 
formed us in a unique way. Our gifts, our strengths, and our 
inspirations are our own.  And in choosing what to become, we 
must be mindful of who we are and have been.  Aspirations 
that are chosen with care can be realized, however demanding 
they may be.  They will be the signs of progress and steeples 
of excellence that signal our place and our abilities to the 
world.  Aspirations that are chosen from envy or wishful 
thinking or lack of thought seldom become realities. We must 
be as authentic in our dreams as we are in our lives.

	I am convinced that there are five areas that demand our 
attention now and into the near future, and each, I believe, 
is strongly linked to our core strengths and values as an 
institution. They are: 1) intellectual vitality; 2) community 
life; 3) Catholic and Jesuit identity; 4) voluntary support; 
and 5) efficiency and cost reduction.  Let me say a word 
about each.

	Intellectual vitality.  This is the core of the 
university because it relates to the central focus of the 
liberal arts, which is to deepen the sense of intellectual 
wonder and joy among students, and so to liberate them to 
think for themselves and to become adults. We should be known 
for educating men and women for intellectual, spiritual, and 
community leadership.  Special academic programs such as 
Scholar of the College projects, honors seminars, research, 
arts performances, and international study should be the norm 
for our students.

	But intellectual vitality has many means of measurement: 
the quality of teaching; the quality of the research 
conducted by faculty and by graduate students; the subjects 
students talk about among themselves or with faculty; the way 
in which we, as a community, utilize guest lecturers and 
other outside resources; the pleasure we take in the arts; 
the tone that pervades our residence halls and dining 
facilities.

	As you know, this past May, following three years of  
deliberation and consultation, our Board of Trustees endorsed 
a set of goals for the strengthening of faculty, 
undergraduate education, professional and graduate programs, 
research, and student life. Since the final UAPC report was 
completed in June, 1996, a committee has been at work 
translating the UAPC goals into action steps. Father Neenan 
will be describing some of those details when he speaks, and 
each of you will receive the complete implementation report 
later this week in campus mail.
	
	The Implementation Plan charts the course to increased 
intellectual vitality at Boston College.  Phased over the 
next five years, at a total investment of $260 million, it 
will affect each of you--every academic department and every 
school.  For example, it will increase, by 50, the number of 
full-time faculty engaged in instruction, especially in the 
undergraduate core curriculum. It will also ensure that 
teaching and other responsibilities of researching faculty 
are competitive with peer institutions. 

	The UAPC implementation document was not written on a 
tabula rasa. It builds on a history of rapid achievement, on 
a quarter-century of growth in faculty salaries, graduate and 
professional program support, and academic facilities such as 
Merkert Center as well as Devlin, Cushing and Campion Halls.  
While it will make an extraordinary difference, the UAPC 
implementation plan is only the next necessary step.  It is 
the step we can see from here because we have climbed to this 
place.  But as it is not the first, neither can it be the 
last step in the intellectual progress of Boston College.  It 
is part of a continuum of growth that cannot ever end.

	Community life. There are three aspects to this 
particular area.  One is the life we provide for our 
students, and most particularly our undergraduate students, 
for whom we seek to provide an educational experience that 
encompasses residence halls, recreational facilities, 
extracurricular opportunities, and social settings.
 
 	A second aspect of community is inclusiveness.  Here we 
must judge ourselves by the highest standards.  We must be a 
place in which all men and women are welcome. As I noted in 
my letter on race relations last year, this is for a 
university like ours not simply a social imperative, but a 
religious one.  Not surprisingly, then, the UAPC 
implementation plan calls for an increase in the number of 
minority faculty and graduate students. 

	And that brings me to a third aspect of community: how 
we relate to each other. I have noted in the last year that 
the culture of Boston College is often to avoid conflict or 
to be shocked by it--even the best kind of conflict, the 
conflict of ideas that leads to discovery about ourselves and 
about external truths. 

	While we should not promote disagreement for its own 
sake, we should not shy away from it on this campus. If we 
treat each other with dignity; if we behave with civility and 
honesty, then our diversity--in ideas as well as all other 
things--will make us richer. On the other hand, if we do not 
really express what we believe, if we turn away from each 
other because we fear engagement, because it is, after all, 
easier to live without friction, then we will never be a 
university of ideas, and no amount of diversity will help us. 
We will remain isolated and alone.

	Catholic and Jesuit identity. What is a university that 
calls itself Catholic and Jesuit?  Obviously, this is a 
complicated question and I do not propose to answer it today, 
but I think at least four elements or characteristics must be 
present for an institution to legitimately call itself 
Catholic and Jesuit.

	First, it is a place where the curriculum and campus 
life honors and seriously attends to questions of faith and 
of the natural human yearning for transcendent understanding, 
and does so from the perspective, beliefs, and values of 
Catholicism and its moral and intellectual tradition. Second, 
it is a place that encounters life and the world in a loving 
and caring way because this is God's creation and imbued with 
God's presence. Third, it is a place of Christian humanism--
that honors men and women as God's highest creation, as made 
in His image. Fourth, it is a place that provides men and 
women, faculty, staff, and students, with the opportunity to 
engage in religious inquiry, whether through worship, 
retreats, or intellectual or personal exploration.
	
	I do not have to tell any of you that our planet aches 
for meaning.  One sees it on the evening news, in the faces 
on the "T," in the hope that extraterrestials landed in the 
New Mexico in 1947, in the extraordinary cultural reliance 
upon irony to distance our selves from what we feel, and in 
the emphasis on income and consumption as the measures of 
success.

	That culture affects us at Boston College too. We are 
part of it. But Boston College, because it is connected to 
the Catholic intellectual and religious tradition, should 
offer alternatives to its students and to each of us. It 
should offer the possibility a faith experience for all on 
our campus, especially for Catholic believers. It should 
evidence a reverence for truth, learning, and life. It should 
allow us, the members of this community, to explore the 
values we hold and the choices we make as a consequence of 
those values. Because we are at Boston College, we should 
have the opportunity to think more deeply and commit 
ourselves to building up our world and to being vibrant 
sources of wisdom, faith, and compassion.  This should be 
BC's gift to all who come in contact with it. This should be 
the example that we set and which no other university can 
provide as we can--given our unique heritage and mission.
	
	The UAPC Implementation Plan offers a number of means 
for strengthening Jesuit and Catholic identity, of which I 
will mention one, the Center for Ignatian Spirituality. 
Founded through a challenge gift from the Jesuit Community, 
and led by Fr. Howard Gray, this Center will offer programs 
of retreat and reflection, will be a resource for faculty and 
staff who wish to explore religious questions as these may 
relate to work and life.

	Voluntary support. This is essential for us to realize 
the academic vision of the UAPC. We can be justly proud of 
the support we have received in recent years from alumni, 
parents, and friends. These individuals have helped us to set 
fundraising records in almost every category of measurement, 
from membership in the Fides Society to class reunion gifts.

	But that's not the whole picture.  For example, if we 
look at the critical figure of endowment support per student, 
we find that in 1996, while Boston College benefited from 
$2,300 of income per student from its endowment, Notre Dame 
received $6,000 per student; Brown, $5,300; Duke, $4,300. 
These are BC's peers and competitors, and they have an 
immediate advantage because they have those greater 
resources.

	At the moment, we are planning a fundraising campaign of 
crucial importance to BC, an effort that needs the support of 
everyone connected to Boston College.  From my assessment of 
BC's heritage, goals, and current strength as well as from 
meetings with alumni and other friends, I am convinced that 
our mission and case for support are compelling.  I also 
believe that our alumni and supporters are capable in every 
way of the greater commitment that will be required if we are 
to achieve our goals.

	And finally, efficiency and cost reduction. This is the 
second source of funds for UAPC implementation--the savings 
gained from reorganization and process reengineering that 
will be accomplished by Delta and other management 
initiatives.
	
	In the past decade we entered a new arena of 
competition. The services that we offer must be continually 
improved also provided as efficiently as possible. Frank will 
speak shortly about Delta, but I would like to say a few 
words about the importance of efficiency and cost control. We 
are an efficient organization. According to a recent study, 
BC spends fewer administrative dollars per student--in many 
instances far fewer--than do any of our peer institutions.

	But relative spending is not the issue for us. The issue 
is our own patterns of spending and our need to shift as much 
as is reasonable from funding administrative and support 
functions to academic goals. If we cannot make these shifts 
and be more efficient--as well as raise new money-- UAPC 
implementation, as presently envisioned, will not be 
possible.  Thus, Delta is crucial for our future, and it is 
an initiative in which I believe and which I think can and 
will result in a stronger Boston College.

	Intellectual vitality, community life, Catholic and 
Jesuit identity, fundraising support, and efficiency and cost 
reductions are the issues that I see as critical to the 
future of Boston College. And they will shape my priorities 
as president.

	The years ahead will involve meeting new challenges and 
will require us to become even better at managing change.  
And doing so without harming the essential elements of our 
campus culture nor sacrificing  our intellectual and 
religious heritage.  In that context, I want to inform you of 
some personnel changes at Boston College.

	Most of you already know that John Driscoll has left the 
post of Vice President for Administration and has become 
special consultant to me for community and state affairs.  
John reminds me of Cardinal Newman's words that "It is almost 
the definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never 
inflicts pain."  John is a true gentleman, someone who has 
given so much to BC, especially as a Vice President.  And I 
am very pleased to continue having his counsel and friendship 
close at hand.   

	A second change concerns Peg Dwyer, who intends to leave 
as vice president and assistant to the president sometime in 
the first part of October. Peg, as we all know so well, has 
been a key figure on this campus since the first year of 
Father Monan's presidency. Her knowledge of this institution 
and of higher education, and her sensitivity to both people 
and issues, have been a tremendous resource to me over the 
past year, as they have been to hundreds of you since she 
arrived here in 1973. 

	A third change will occur in the Office of the Academic 
Vice President and Dean of Faculties.  The next five to seven 
years will be crucial for BC, and we need to do all we can to 
seize the moment.  I am particularly mindful of the demands 
already on me and the upcoming campaign.  I need the help of 
someone with special gifts and talents in meeting these 
challenges and opportunities. And so, I have asked Father 
Neenan to become Assistant to the President and Vice 
President and to work closely with me, especially to play a 
key role in our fundraising campaign as we seek the 
assistance of our alumni and friends for Boston College.  
Bill will assume his new responsibilities next year after we 
have found a new Academic Vice President and he has had a 
sabbatical.  I especially have benefited from his warmth, 
wisdom, wit, and understanding this year, and I am happy I 
will be working even more closely with him.   

	Last year I stood among you a stranger. This year I look 
out and see faces I know, people from whom I've drawn 
strength and knowledge.  You are, as I have learned, an 
extraordinary group of scholars, teachers and staff.  Your 
work, presence, and commitment attract students, enthuse 
alumni, and win the admiration of individuals I have met in 
corporate offices, homes, and airports during the past year.

	As I begin my second year here, I am confident that 
Boston College has a sense of purpose and a clear mission.  
It know where it needs to go and the requirements necessary 
to there.

	How far it will go, how much it will accomplish, how 
well it will succeed, are up to all of us who are Boston 
College.  We are on a journey together.  That journey--which 
I have just begun to take with you--will be challenging, 
demanding and daring in the years just ahead. It will test us 
at times. But it is a journey toward greatness--of that I 
have no doubt.
	
	Thank you.