At the risk of playing to my audience, my final column in The Heights isn't mine.
It's yours.
This was going to be about all the things I wanted changed at Boston College but never got around to writing about. The list would be long. Then, I realized, you don't care what I want. You want what you want.
So instead, I asked friends, classmates, acquaintances, and strangers in the Mods what they wanted to change at BC. Some of the ideas - or theses, in the vein of Martin Luther's demands of the Catholic Church - listed on this page have been mentioned before. Most have not. Many are simple, but they are what comes to mind when BC students want something done.
One thing is certain: few administrators who get paid, or UGBC members who get a sparkling line on their resume, have made the effort to go out and find these concerns. The response I got makes it clear students have plenty of concerns, but I've celebrated as many BC national championships in my four years as the number of times I've had a UGBC elected official or administrator ask me, unprompted, what I'd like to see changed at BC.
But as I paid for $7 beers along with my fellow seniors at the Roxy Friday night, I came upon a revelation: I am 100 days from getting my voice heard.
I don't see a six-figure salary in my near or distant future, but already I'm being asked to contribute to the Senior Class fund. Accounts from recent and distant graduates say the requests won't stop any time soon. With a gazillion dollar campus plan already on this side of the horizon, it's clear BC is going to need my contribution. BC needs me.
I've loved most of my time at BC. I have always planned to donate to BC in the future. But with my newfound power, I've got an ultimatum: I will not donate a cent until the printing policy is changed to an environmentally and cost-conscious per piece of paper system. Reward students for being both environmentally and cost-conscious by squeezing multiple PDFs onto double-sided pieces of paper.
Is this the single most important thing I would like BC to do? No, but I'm going to let the monorail dream die. This is something that is easy to do, is the right thing to do, and is the only way BC's going to get my money.
I encourage every graduating senior to do the same. Whatever issue you pick - condoms in health services, more financial aid - take your stance and stick to it. Imagine what could get done if every senior made an ultimatum of their own.
BC needs to remember not to, as one student pointed out, "insult our intelligence and think we don't care about what goes on at this school."
We care what you do, and how you act, BC. There's a blank check with my signature on it just waiting for you. Now get to work.
1. You already forgive loans for law students who go immediately into pro bono work. Forgive loans for students who participate in Teach For America, Peace Corps, and other organizations that support the Jesuit ideal of "Men and Women for Others."
2. Change the printing policy to count pieces of paper used rather than printed. Don't tell us you're trying to save trees if it actually doesn't matter whether you print double-sided.
3. Add "class diversity" to cultural diversity in the core curriculum. Too many people at this school think pearls, Uggs, and iPods are available to everyone if they just try.
4. A police officer, sumo wrestler, lifeguard, ANYTHING to enforce the 40-minute time limit on cardio machines in the Plex.
5. Rather than plant new tulips each year, BC should develop a more cost- and environmentally friendly landscaping plan. Design some landscaping that will last longer and allow money to be spent more wisely elsewhere. Too often I feel BC is more about image than substance.
6. Allow registered parties to go on longer than Late Night in Lower.
7. Set, and publicize, a reliable bus schedule.
8. Add more year-long classes like many European schools, which allow students to get to know professors better and become much more proficient in the subject.
9. Warn freshmen not to buy BC sheets or make BC sheets remotely comfortable.
10. If BC is going to allow Smart Movers exclusive access to its students, it should play a more active role in enforcing its insurance policy for lost boxes, which rarely gets paid.
11. Have the Office of Community Affairs do more than just please the neighbors: Start with pressuring Campus Convenience to stop its price gouging with $5 gallons of milk.
12. Feel free to charge extra, but put a color printer in the Campus Technology Resource Center.
13. BC should make an effort to supplement its Catholic teaching on sexual health by promoting the safe use of contraception.
14. CSOM should shrink its core and add a few classes on corporate responsibility. There are a few classes that could be replaced with a chance for CSOM students to understand the many ways they can positively impact the world with their skills.
15. Make the process for creating a new club or organization on campus easier: If there are students that want it, why prevent it?
16. There are plenty of pianos on campus for students to use. Let's get a few more drum sets.
17. When it comes to rape education, BC should talk more publicly about it. It's simple: "Enthusiastic consent, every time, no matter what."
18. BC can't wait for the new arts center to provide more space on campus for performing arts groups. If the basketball team has to practice in the Plex once a week so Dance Organization can use the Power Gym to practice, I would hope that's not a huge sacrifice.
19. BC should have more pep rallies like the one before the Notre Dame game - consistency breeds tradition. And every pep rally should have a fog machine, no excuses.
20. Avocados should be a topping choice at Hillside when creating personalized sandwiches.
21. Chipotle and Dunkin' Donuts should take Eagle Bucks.
22. There should be more TV shows on BCTV starring BC students. Having five channels without any BC-produced content seems a bit of a waste. Air movies from BC film students, amateurs, or even recorded shows of BC performance groups.
23. Currently there is no place on campus where students can get specialty coffee items before noon on Saturdays or all day on Sundays. There should be.
24. Dining should consider charging for "to-go" containers, or at least keeping them behind the counters so students have to ask for them specifically instead of just lazily foregoing the more eco-friendly plates.
25. From December to February, it would be nice to have an entrance to the Plex that doesn't involve walking all the way around the building in freezing temperatures.
26. Put honey mustard in McElroy.
27. At BC, all study-abroad locations are not created equal. BC should not charge the same to go to Oxford as the American University in Cairo, and if it does, then each location - not just Madrid and London - should receive the same on-site support.
28. Change the yellow light bulbs in the lampposts outside of Devlin so they match the white bulbs around Gasson and Bapst, for aesthetics' sake.
29. Make sure all the paths in the Dustbowl have red brick borders like the central path.
30. If students are supposed to study there, O'Neill Library needs more ergonomic chairs.
31. Make less soggy fries at Lower, especially during Late Night.
32. Put print stations around campus in places other than the CTRC - including one on Newton Campus - and make one of them a Mac.
33. Allow professors to add to students' printing allotments if they know the class will require an inordinate amount of printing. Ditto for students writing a thesis.
34. Have fresh mozzarella, artichoke hearts, feta, and beets in the salad bars all the time.
35. Sell Starbucks coffee beans at Hillside.
36. Do something to make the Duchesne Hill less of a death trap in icy weather.
37. Buy back textbooks at a price St. Ignatius would approve of.
38. During football season, BC should allow seniors living in Hillside apartments to have regulated grills outside.
39. Run buses until 3 a.m., even if they're less regular, on weekend nights.
40. Put hand-dryers in freshman bathrooms so they don't waste so many paper towels.
41. Replace the dining hall plates with ones that have more depth, so that the food doesn't pile over the edges when you're eating. People tend to get plastic containers to avoid this problem, and changing the plates might reduce wasted plastic.
42. All seniors should have access to senior housing with their BC ID. If a computer system is getting in the way, get a new one.
43. The joke has gone on long enough. Spend 20 bucks at Sherwin-Williams and paint new numbers on the Mods that go in some logical order.
44. Serve breakfast food at Late Night.
45. If RAs are here to support us, make them our friends and not our enemies: Give their disciplinary authority to someone else.
46. Provide an entrance from the CTRC to the second floor of O'Neill Library. Going up, over, around, and back down to move 10 feet just doesn't make sense.
47. Make asking girls on real dates a requirement for male graduation.
48. Reffing intramurals is hard, but many refs are consistently poor, and it wouldn't hurt for the Plex to require a more stringent training session.
49. Spend a few extra bucks for some Charmin in the bathrooms.
50. That tree in the Quad smells like woah. Plant another, different, eco-friendly tree. Did we mention the tour groups notice it?
51. Air condition the smoldering fourth floor of Lyons.
52. Hillside, expand so your busy line doesn't make students late to class for a latte.
53. Charge students only for what they buy. If you don't want sides, you still get charged the full price. Make a separate price for a meal without sides.
54. Provide wireless Internet in residence halls.
55. Install an ATM in one of the Hillside residence halls.
56. Students are told that Father Leahy must approve this or that proposal, yet few students know what he looks like, let alone have the opportunity to speak with him. There's a barrier between the students and the administration that impedes us from being a better University, which may contribute to apathy among students, and Fr. Leahy's absence is the epitome of it all.
57. With AZN going out of business, add the Disney Channel and ABC Family. BC students should be able to watch ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas.
58. Make a more efficient waffle line at Lower that leaves fewer burnt breakfasts and more served waffles.
59. BC should buck the nationwide trend toward non-tenure-track professors. BC professors that are invested in their institution, rather than scrambling to make ends meet, are invested in their students.
60. Lower managers: Follow the precedent of one of your co-workers, roll up your sleeves, throw back your tie, and help when the Taqueria line is busy. Gracias.
61. Among two superficial goals, BC needs to decide which part of being a Catholic University it is after: appealing to its homogeneous alumni base (the Catholic part), or rising in the rankings (the university part).
62. BC should focus less on varsity athletics and more on overall recreation.
63. A semester should be added to the cultural diversity core.
64. There should be more pub series events, like the BC-Virginia Tech football game.
65. Require two meetings with an advisor: once during registration, and once at the beginning of the semester to discuss more long-term class options.
66. Set up a schoolwide mentoring program between upper and underclassmen. Consider making it mandatory.
67. Let us substitute lettuce for a bun in the dining halls without charging for a salad and a sandwich.
68. Make the McElroy Bookstore a bit less like a stale Borders, and a bit more unique.
69. Replace the old desks in Gasson, Lyons, Campion, and Cushing.
70. If the bus stops aren't going to be fully heated, heating lamps or doors would be nice.
71. Lower the cost of replacement IDs. A 3x2 piece of plastic can't possibly cost that much.
72. Get rid of the Stafford Loan requirement in financial aid packages.
73. Protect students who have to walk to Brighton Campus at night for rehearsals.
74. Add more study days.
75. Have a parking spot lottery to give a few spots up for free.
76. Add cleaner workout areas on College Road.
77. Create a closer link with alumni and current students.
78. BC should set a national standard to match its growing national reputation: Make the campus plan the most eco-friendly design possible.
79. Bring back delicious food to the Rat, and restore its underground personality.
80. Give more decisive power to BC students, or at least to the UGBC - what has happened since the '70s? We're the ones attending now, and eventually we'll be the ones who donate - why not let us take charge of our own lives in preparation for being responsible adults in our University community?
81. Tuck the "Jesuit Ideals" front away to make the school a better place for students, not wealthy contributors or the students that will one day undoubtedly be those wealthy contributors.
82. Girls, it's okay to have a regular Coca-Cola. Guys, it's okay to drink Coke Zero.
83. BC needs better response time by various administrators - the athletic department should not be the best run department at the university.
84. More students should get involved with service and the things that truly matter when going to a Jesuit school like BC, instead of partying and more partying.
85. Girls should not ref guys' games, not because they can't do it, but because guys are terribly mean to refs.
86. The BC administration should work on innovative ways to make our campus more eco-friendly and our student body more intellectually unique rather than just engaging in money politics.
87. Get nicer bookshelves in O'Neill.
88. The phrase "I love being a girl 'cause I never have to pay" is lame. Girls, pay for the beer you drink at parties.
89. A class on how to beat Nintendo games. For three credits.
90. The cheerleaders who dance at the basketball games, go ahead and dance. Just don't do a striptease that makes men your fathers' age drool. Less pelvis, more feet.
91. Replace the safety hazard that is the incredibly awkward stairwell doors in Ignacio and Rubenstein.
92. Add a BC bus stop next to the B Line station so students can decide for themselves whether the B or D Line will be quicker into the city.
93. Career Services needs a better answer than "Google" when students ask where to find jobs that aren't in accounting or finance.
94. Allow BC students on financial aid to apply those scholarships to non-affiliated study-abroad programs, like the Casa de Solidaridad.
95. End the sexism that pervades the Campus Ministry office.
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