CAMPUS

April 30th, 2009

God’s Sick Joke

Do you ever notice how the weather always just begins to get nice during exam week? Up here in the northeast, winter has suddenly thawed with 75 degree weather and cloudless skies. This presents an enormous temptation to students looking to go to class, study for finals, and finish the semester strong. Plenty of students begin their track towards class with perfectly good intentions only to get sidetracked by a game of ultimate frisbee or football. Despite the promises of fly fishing that a late May in upstate New York (my home) ultimately holds for me, the need for sunny relaxation rears its ugly head every time I cross the academic quad.

Posted in Blog
By Michael Reer

April 28th, 2009

Mary Ann Glendon Turns Down ND

Father Jenkins, C.S.C. was given a rude surprise yesterday when Mary Ann Glendon turned down the prestigous Laetare Medal, which was to be given during the commencement exercises. The Laetare Medal, which commemorates outstanding service to the Roman Catholic Church and society is widely considered the oldest and most prestigous award for a Catholic layperson to receive. In doing so, Glendon has significantly upped the pressure on Jenkins and Notre Dame.

Posted in Blog
By Michael Reer

April 21st, 2009

Clough Center Comes Under Fire at BC

The Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy was recently created at Boston College for the purposes of developing constitutional thought through undergraduate events, internships, and conferences. For the purposes of full disclosure, I will tell you that I was recently received as one of the first junior fellows by the center, but will strive to remain as objective as possible in relating the following controversial events to you. The center, which has come under fire for attempting to cosponsor an event featuring Bill Ayers, recently cosponsored an event on the Establishment Clause at Princeton, which was most definitely on the opposite side of the political spectrum.

Posted in Blog
By Michael Reer

April 14th, 2009

Revisionist History Revisited

One of the growing fads in academia, particularly in American history, is the idea of revisionist history. Revisionist history is an attempt to take an objective view of widely accepted historical norms, review the evidence upon which they are based, and draw a different conclusion. Almost every presidency of modern times has seen some sort of revisionist movement in the historical community as new documents become declassified and as new information becomes available. The problem with revisionist history is that it creates a tendency to advocate change in historical norms for the mere sake of challenging the status quo.

Posted in Blog
By Michael Reer

March 19th, 2009

Did The Observer Call for Censorship?

A recent Observer editorial called for BC theology-related events to be reviewed by a panel of Jesuits in order to review their adherence to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The editorial suggested that if this panel found an event to be contrary to the views of the Catholic Church, it should send an accredited professor to define and explain the Catholic position before or after the event. This editorial has met with stiff resistance among the university’s professors, some going so far as to call the idea “censorship.”

Posted in Blog
By Michael Reer

March 10th, 2009

BC to bring Condoms to Campus?

A student movement at Boston College has formed and passed a petition calling for the free distribution of condoms on campus, affordable and available STD testing, and a renewed commitment on the part of the university to provide information on sexual health to students. The Sexual Health Initiative (nick-named S.H.I.T. by its detractors) was passed by a student vote, garnering well over 80 percent of those polled. There are two fundamental problems with this petition. First, it seeks to ask a Jesuit university to violate its code of ethics. Second, it essentially asks all students to help pay for STD testing, providing an incentive for risky behavior.

Posted in Blog, Uncategorized
By Michael Reer

February 24th, 2009

Is Columbus a Villain?

Just days after the very public controversy over the posting of crucifixes in classrooms at Boston College finally began to die down, a new controversy has erupted on the heights. A picture of Christopher Columbus has appeared above a cubical in the student activities area at BC. The picture depicts Columbus with an arrow sticking through his forehead and includes a brief caption protesting the celebration of Columbus Day. While the picture has not raised as much controversy as the crucifixes, some students are nonetheless concerned about the image, which was apparently put up by a Latin-American group.

Posted in Blog
By Michael Reer

February 17th, 2009

BC Professor to be Censored

Anna Djintcharadze, a doctoral student and teacher in the philosophy department at Boston College, may have her published work permanently revised without her permission in order to make it more politically correct.

Djintcharadze, who recently penned two articles for the controversial Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, could have her work amended by Blackwell Publishing even though both her and the editor-in-chief of the encyclopedia steafastly stand behind the accuracy of her articles. Accusations by some that the encyclopedia is “too Christian” sparked an immediate response from the publisher. The printing of the encyclopedia has been stopped indefinitely and the volumes in shipment have been recalled. Contributers to the encyclopedia have been asked to return their complimentary copies and the publisher has destroyed all copies of the publication in its possession.

Posted in Blog
By Michael Reer

February 13th, 2009

Boston’s Channel 7 Covers Crucifixes

You can read Channel 7’s story and watch the WDHD-TV video here. Follow the “Watch the Video” link at the top. The video features The Observer at Boston College, the CN member paper that broke the story. 

Note: I could only get the video to play in Internet Explorer, so if you have problems viewing it, try that.

Posted in Blog
By Will Moyer

February 12th, 2009

BC Professors Protest Crucifixes

By Michael Reer