Citing deficient graduation rates for full-time students, Mayor Thomas M. Menino lambasted Bunker Hill Community College, as well as Roxbury Community College, during his speech before the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce last month.
“They are failing our students and failing our businesses,” Mayor Menino said. “It is my sincere hope that the new governor will shake up that system, and I offer my help with the community colleges here in the city.”
According to data released by the National Center for Educational Statistics, the graduation rate for full-time students in all of the state’s community colleges was just below 19 percent in 2005, earning Massachusetts a 42nd-place ranking in the nation by state in that category. The same study puts the graduation rates for BHCC and Roxbury Community College below the state average at under 15 percent.
President Mary Fifield of BHCC maintains that the statistics only represent a small portion of the college’s student body because most students attend school part time and have spent time in the work force before returning to school. In the case of BHCC, the federal standard for its graduation rate only applies to students who are attending college full time and for the first time and who complete their associate’s degree within three years, she said.
“Many are still going to graduate, but they’re not going to be counted by federal standards because they’re part-time students, not full-time students,” she said, adding that only about 800 of the 8,500 fulfill the federal criteria that would make them eligible for the study. “By the time we hit January, one-half of those 800 students because they find that financial aid isn’t enough for them to provide for their families, pay rent and buy food.”
In addition, Fifield said out that many students attending BHCC have no intention of graduating; some are taking classes that are designed by their employers to help advance their careers, while others are taking English as a second language courses that allow them to remain employed.
“One student took English as an English as a second language course because she answers the phone at work,” she said. “After one semester, she can answer the phone, which enables her to keep her job.”
As for the college’s other recent accomplishments, Fifield points to the Welcome Home Center, an award-winning program launched at BHCC in October 2005 that helps foreign-born nurses become accredited in the U.S., and its selection as one of a small number of recipients for state funding that would allow the school to address the mayor’s initiative to end race-based disparity in the health field.
Fifield is also optimistic that BHCC would benefit from Gov.-elect Deval Patrick’s decision last week to restore $383.6 million in state funding that was cut by acting Gov. Mitt Romeny last month. As a result of the cuts, BHCC was granted only $18.7 million, compared with the $19.1 million it received in state funding during the 2002 fiscal year.
Meanwhile, Fifield is looking forward to addressing BHCC’s performance, as well as the recent criticisms, when she and the president of Roxbury Community College, meet with the mayor next week.
“Our working relationship with the mayor has always been good, which contributed to my surprise for what I saw in the paper,” Fifield said in regard to learning of the mayor’s comments.
Jennifer Mehigan, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office, said he only wants to see the community colleges best serve their students and the city.
“Essentially, the mayor is looking out for what is best for the residents of Boston,” Mehigan said. “We want residents seeking an education to have the best education possible, and the mayor wanted to call attention to the issue.”

The Boston Water and Sewer Commission announced last week that it would re-file a proposal that would bring a handling facility for catch-basin refuse to Alford Street in Charlestown, thereby giving residents an opportunity to voice their concerns about its long-term impact on the community and the environment.
In September, plans were announced to build a three-story, 34,250 square-foot building on the Charlestown-Everett line, where the BWSC would dewater cleanings from the City of Boston’s approximately 35,000 catch-basins. Trucks would transport an over 100 tons of waste - 2 percent of which would contain sewage – to the facility each day. The Charlestown plant would replace a facility on Frontage Road in Dorchester and is expected to be operational by 2008, a BWSC representative said last month.
Sen. Jarrett Barrios was pleased to hear of last week’s decision but was unconvinced that it would prevent the facility from ultimately being built on Alford Street.
“In essence, it gives us the chance to weigh in a timely way,” Barrios said. “It’s still a long shot probably, but we are going to get our day before [the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act] to make our case against the project being sited in Charlestown.”
State Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty, who, along with Barrios, has advocated for more community input since the announcement that the facility would be located in Charlestown, considers the recent announcement a minor triumph for Charlestown residents.
“Both [Barrios and I] were inclined that the public weigh in on this and that the community be given an opportunity for a full review and for an opportunity to comment,” Rep. O’Flaherty said. “I think it’s rightfully termed somewhat of a victory.”
Michael Parker, chairman of the Friends of the Charlestown Navy Yard, isoptimistic that the proposed facility will be subject to further review, but he wonders whether a Notice of Project Change provides enough public scrutiny for what he deems to essentially be a new project.
“It’s good because the public at large gets another crack at opining on whether a Notice of Project Change is appropriate for this project, as opposed to a higher-level review,” he said.
Parker also said the proposed facility deserves added scrutiny because it would be located in an environmental justice community, which he said are generally disproportionately impacted by this project.
“The thought is that these communities are easy to shelve these projects off on,” Parker said. “It’s not an accident that this project wasn’t proposed for Beacon Hill.”
Meanwhile, Tom Cunha, chairman of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council, views the BWSC’s decision as a promising indication that city agencies will be more receptive to the community’s concerns in the future.
“It’s a sign that our legislators and the community will have a more meaningful voice,” he said.
The BWSC is expected to file a new Notice of Project Change in regard to the Charlestown site in the coming weeks. Thomas R. Bagley, the manager of community services for the BWSC, was unavailable for comment.

In one of Gov. Deval Patrick’s fist appointments to his Cabinet, Charlestown resident Ian Bowles was recently named the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
“Basically, I’m doing my homework, hiring my team and being briefed on all the issues,” Bowles, 41, said in anticipation of his inauguration to the post today, Jan. 4.
Bowles, a native of Woods Hole, Mass., earned an A.B. in economics and went on to complete his master’s degree from Oxford University, where he teaches an international environmental and law policy class every spring. Bowles made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1996, losing to U.S. Rep. William D. Delahunt (D-Quincy). Between 1998 and 2001, Bowles served under President Bill Clinton as associate director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and as an environmental aide to the National Security Council. While Bowles said that his firsthand interaction with president was limited, he did accompany President Clinton on four trips in 1999 and 2000.
Bowles is also a member of the board of overseers for the Museum of Science and chairs a committee on green building issues. He most recently served as the president and CEO of MassINC, a Boston-based research institute that focuses on issues facing the state’s middle-class, and as publisher of the institute’s quarterly Commonwealth Magazine.
In his new position, Bowles identifies the integration of energy and environmental impact change as a top priority “Many people look at them as being in conflict, but, in fact, they are complementary,” he said.
Among other issues facing the world that he hopes to tackle are high fuel prices, which he attributes in part to the emergence of China and India into the global economy, and the impact of global climate changes.
Bowles believes that Massachusetts has the opportunity to be a global leader in energy technology and to subsequently create more jobs throughout the state. He also said that the state could become a pioneer in the field by adopting thoughtful and innovative energy policies.
In addition, Bowles also hopes to revitalize the state’s once-thriving park system.
“Massachusetts has lost its position of having world-class parks and recreational areas,” he said. “Wow do we get ourselves back on the path to having world-class parks?
Bowles describes Gov. Patrick as an “extraordinary leader,” who is very intelligent and a hard worker. “He has a unique vision for Massachusetts, and that’s what we need,” Bowles said.
As the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Bowles is particularly looking forward to working with the Charlestown community, which he has been a part of since moving here in 2002.
Bowles lives on Adam Street with his wife, Hannah, and the couple’s 1-year-old daughter, Hannah. He said his family could be found in Shipyard and Harvard parks on any given weekend, as well at Constitution Marina, where he docks his 18-foot Sea Pro motor boat.
And while he is still somewhat of a newcomer to Charlestown, he is proud to call the neighborhood home.
“It’s a place with an unbelievable history that I care about a lot,” he said. “Charlestown is just delightful.”

2007 is here

Another year of our lives has passed just like that — with the snap of a finger.
The year 2006 has been sent to the dustbin of history and many years from now, many of us will recall something of 2006 or have no recollection of it at all.
A year has come and gone and Charlestown remains vibrant as a neighborhood — and, arguably, one of the best in Boston.
The end of the double-digit growth in the housing and real estate market came to pass in 2006. The heyday of the upswing that seemed like it would last forever settled back into much slower growth and, by the end of the year, no growth at all. In fact, prices remain very high and numbers of properties for sale have increased, but sales and prices have declined since 2005 — a situation impacting real estate companies and their brokers who are all trying to survive in a dramatically changed marketplace.
Charlestown, however, remains almost immune to the downturn.
The downturn or correction, however one chooses to think of it here, doesn’t spell the end of the real estate marketplace. Indeed, it marks the moment the high point was reached. How long the present doldrums will remain is anyone’s guess. It appears that 2007 could be a year where the market coasts along with no great gains and no great losses — kind of like the rounds some fighters use to save their energy for the rounds coming up.
The fundamentals in the local job market and economy remain sound. The year 2007 should produce more jobs and more business opportunities. The expectation, based on what has come before, tells us that 2007 will mimic 2006, give or take a percentage here or there.
The cost of insuring ourselves and our families against sickness will increase this year. That is a guarantee.
Property taxes are also on the rise. There is no way around the rising cost of providing municipal services except through the property tax.
Public safety will continue to be among the top two priorities of the community. Without a safe community where children, adults and seniors are living free of fear and violence, all is lost.
Public school education remains under the microscope, with tens of millions being poured into the system and with new philosophies and teaching styles being added.
The year 2007 at its beginning remains as ineffable as predicting the outcome of the major league baseball season during the height of winter. 2007 is as impossible to describe right now as an abstract painting or a brilliant and complex piece of music. Our vision as a society has never been better, but when it comes to seeing into the extended calendar, well, what is going to befall us is anyone’s guess.
The year 2006 with all its gains and losses, births and deaths, sufferings and joys, is as gone as every year that came before it to the beginning of time.
The year 2007 is upon us. We welcome it. We are wary of it. We look forward to it with ambition and energy, with a belief in ourselves that with hard work and faith, we can overcome anything standing in our way.
Happy New Year.


Saddam Hussein

The execution of the tyrannical murderer Saddam Hussein, who subjugated the Iraqi people for two decades, was both proper and fitting. He lived by the sword, and he died by the sword. The world is a better place without him.
He was defiant to the end. Even with the noose pulled tight around his neck, and with taunts being hurled at him, he yelled back — and then the trap door was dropped, and he went to eternity.
Complaints by some Arabs that his execution took place close to a sacred Muslim holiday were ludicrous given the fact that Muslims began slaughtering one another with suicide bombs moments after Hussein’s death.
It remains to be scene that Iraq was better off with Hussein.