“I'm also really proud that the center is really looking to the future of the church, being young people with a particular focus,” Kiefer said. “Our commitment to having big conversations about roles and relationships in the church and the Catholic intellectual tradition … and constantly creating new opportunities to engage more people in important conversations about the importance of God.”

Across the country and at BC, both abortion-rights and anti-abortion advocates are processing the Dobbs decision, which overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, establishing that the U.S. Constitution does not recognize a federal right to an abortion. Although not physically together on campus, students, alumni, and professors are grappling with what this decision means for the future of abortion in the United States.

“The process is so frustrating, it's so draining and frankly it’s horrible,” they said. “...it's so overwhelming because you have some people tell you, ‘yes, report, speak up’… and then other people telling you, ‘yeah, this is gonna take like months or years potentially to get anywhere with it.’”

Title IX—passed on June 23, 1972—prohibits discrimination based on sex within educational programs or activities that receive federal funding in a mere 37 words: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

“Obviously you don't know who people are, but that really allows people to be authentic and kind of bond together over a lot of things,” Valentine said.