To say that Suffolk University is entering a pivotal period in its development would be something of an understatement.
Having filed its new Institutional Master Plan with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the university is embarking on an unprecedented period of capital expansion, with a new tower planned in Beacon Hill, recently opened dorms downtown, and the coming renovation of the historic modern theater. All this is happening as Suffolk races to meet a housing demand for 75 percent of a student body expected to peak at 5,000 full- time undergraduates.
Now, Suffolk has named individuals to fill two significant leadership positions and to help guide the university as it embarks on its ambitious plans.
Professor Barry Brown, a longtime faculty member with the Suffolk Law School, has been named provost of Suffolk University, a position that will help to shape Suffolk’s academic future as it continues to grow.
As provost, Brown will be responsible for shaping all aspects of Suffolk’s teaching, research, and academic development, as the university strives to create an academic environment to match its rapidly expanding and modernizing campus. Brown holds an A.B from Harvard College, an Ed.M. from Harvard School of Education and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
“Suffolk University has been my academic home for many years, and I am proud to have the opportunity to work more closely with President [David] Sargent and my colleagues in the College of Arts and Sciences, Sawyer Business School and Law School. Together, we will join the many currents of the university’s three academic units for the benefit of our students,” Brown wrote in a statement. “We have the hope of creating true educational and economic opportunities for our graduates and preparing them for an increasingly complex and internationalized world.”
In a related move, Suffolk named Janice C. Griffith, former dean of Georgia State University College of Law, vice president for Academic Affairs. Griffith holds a B.A. from Colby College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and is the author of numerous academic articles on issues from federalism to home rule.
“I firmly believe in the university’s focus on quality teaching and strong faculty-student interactions,” said Griffith. “Nothing is more important than teaching students the communication, analytical and interpersonal skills they will need to become effective leaders in our 21st century global society.”
“We are very excited that these two distinguished educators will be contributing their unique talents to the university’s academic environment during this time of programmatic growth both here at our Boston campus and abroad,” said Suffolk University President David Sargent.
Suffolk University is a private university with facilities in Beacon Hill, downtown, and in the financial district.

CAPTION: An artist's rendering of Merano, which will feature two hotels and retail and floor space.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) gave the official go-ahead last week to the design plans for the Merano, a hotel, office, and retail project planned for Bulfinch Triangle, according to a spokesman from the mayor’s office.
The project will bring added hotel and retail space to the area around TD Banknorth Garden, which this year saw a large uptick in activity during the Celtics championship run.
“This project will further the revitalization efforts that are happening in the Bulfinch Triangle by bringing much-needed hotel rooms and commercial space,” Mayor Menino said. “The removal of the elevated highway brought us the beautiful Rose Kennedy Greenway, and now we will add to that with a great mixed-use project that will activate the neighborhood and benefit the city as a whole.”
The project will include two separate hotels with a total of 190,000 square feet of total hotel use, 206,000 square feet of office space, 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 13,000 square feet of ground-floor restaurant space. It is the first major commercial project to be proposed for the newly-opened central artery area.
“Our planning efforts are paying off,” said John F. Palmieri, BRA director in a written statement. “The community’s vision for their neighborhood included a thriving mixed-use district, and this project will bring us one step closer to that goal. Soon the neighborhood will take shape with new residential, commercial and hotel uses.”
The Boston Development Group, developer that proposed the project, must submit several public benefit features in its plan, including a traffic study and various neighborhood improvements.
The retail planned for the building will be refreshingly non-luxury, and the developers are aiming at offering more affordable hotel rooms than those that are currently available throughout Boston: something that could be a welcome change in a city where even average rooms can easily top $300 a night.
The city expects construction to last about two years, beginning in the first quarter of 2009. The development team includes Boston Development Group as the developer; CBT as architect, Epsilon Associates Inc. as permitting consultant, Howard Stein Hudson as transportation consultants and Goulston & Storrs as legal counsel.

A lot of sailors and parks enthusiasts breathed a sigh of relief after Governor Deval Patrick signed a $1.64 billion energy and environmental bond bill Thursday.
The bonds will launch Rep. Marty Walz’s $3.7 million amendment to fund new docks for Community Boating (CBI). However, the Community Boating Facility Pier Construction Project amendment approval “doesn’t mean the money is readily available,” said Walz. “This is just the first step in a multi-step process.”
Now it’s a race against time for CBI, The money is an authorization, not an appropriation, so CBI will be especially anxious to get the new docks in time for 2010, when it will host the annual Mallory Trophy. To be co-hosted with MIT and the Mass Bay League, the 80th annual Mallory Trophy will bring more than 100 families around the country to watch their high schoolers compete along the Charles.
CBI needs the new docks to be completed before the Trophy event, which is in May 2010. With such a complicated project, a lot can happen between now and May 2010, when the competition will be held.
“We’ve worked closely with the DCR on design and engineering, and with the Legislature,” said Zechel. “We’ve been advocating for this for five years now. Some of our docks go back to the 1970s and 1980s, and some go further back.” In 2003, CBI also made significant repairs to 50 feet of dock to repair some structural failure. CBI has much experience in seeing projects being held up by delays in obtaining materials.
“The bill takes it one step closer to happening, but we still need to advocate for [the new docks.] We’re not going to do all of it in September.”
Zechel said first the current docks would be demolished, which must happen during the off-season. Then new pilings would need to be driven, and the docks built and installed. “This could start in September to December, if the materials are available, and then the contractors can move very quickly,” Zechel added.
Walz is also a little nervous. “The docks may not even be done by May 2010. We’ll have to factor that tournament into the scheduling, but it’s not the Legislature’s decision to rebuild the docks, it’s ultimately the DCR’s. I will advocate on behalf of Community Boating.”
The Mallory Trophy is a fleet racing national championship among the nation’s private and public high schools, and is school sailing’s oldest trophy. It is administrated by the Interscholastic Sailing Association (ISSA), which governs secondary school sailing in the United States, in both independent and public high schools.
“These trophies rotate through regions of the country,” said Charles Zechel, executive director of Community Boating Inc. “You bid on it, like the Olympics. There’s not many community sailing programs that can host this. We need some help because of the number of boats needed, so MIT and Mass Bay League is helping. It’s a big stepping stone for us because we don’t usually have the ability to host competitive international sailing regattas, because they are usually by people who bring their own boats.”
“We’ve matured to the point we can host a national event. There will be an expense to it,” he said. “We’ll be using our safety launches, staff, our time, our boats. Over the next two years, we’ll be doing some fundraising.”
Zechel and Walz expect that the tournament won’t have a negative impact on the surrounding community, since the student sailors will be split among the MIT and CBI locations. “It’ll be the same numbers when we’re busy,” Zechel said, but he expected that local hotels and restaurants would benefit from the event.
CBI board member Gary du Moulin saidthe new docks will also improve wheelchair accessibility for its new Universal Access program. “Our facility will be 100 percent accessible,” said du Moulin. “The docks are old. Access for wheelchairs is an effort.”
“Community boating as an organization is doing real good things,” said the director, noting its $1 membership for kids and sailors with disabilities.
At $616.3 million, the level of support provided for parks and other DCR assets is more than twice as much as authorized by the 2002 bond bill, said a spokesman from the governor’s office. Included are $205.7 million for DCR parks and reservations, beaches, harbor islands, swimming pools, campgrounds and hiking and biking trails; and $325 million to repair and reconstruct DCR bridges – including critical spans across the Charles River in Boston. This is in addition to the $900 million included in the accelerated bridge program, which will rehabilitate all of DCR’s structurally deficient bridges.
“This is an important investment for residents across the commonwealth,” Senate President Therese Murray said in a press release. “No matter where you live, people place great value on their parks, beaches and recreational areas. It’s a quality of life issue, and this law will make sure that our open space and recreational facilities maintain their appeal and functionality.”

Catie Copley has an immediate impact on guests at the luxurious Fairmont Copley Hotel on St. James Avenue, where to know Catie is to adore Catie.
Catie Copley, a six-year-old black Labrador retriever, is the canine ambassador at the Back Bay hotel. From her cozy dog bed in the hotel lobby, Catie meets and greets guests and is available for scheduled walks and runs.
Catie’s admirers stretch from Boston to cities all over the world. Dr. Nicola Collins, a pediatric surgeon and guest at the Fairmont Copley Plaza visiting last week from Dublin, Ireland, said she and her husband, John, and their 2-year-old son, John, cut short their trip to Cape Cod to spend some more time with Catie.
“We just met Catie last Thursday and we headed off to the Cape on Saturday, and ever since we left, my son John was looking for her and wanted to take Catie for a walk, so we shortened our holiday on the Cape and came back early,” said Collins. “Catie is just so friendly and gentle and amiable, and she responds so well to children.”
Catie graciously posed for a photograph with little John Collins and later obliged other guests’ requests for an autograph - or as her stamped signature and paw prints have come to be known – a paw-tograph.
Catie has had a children’s book published about her, and there are Catie Copley T-shirts stuffed animals, and other souvenirs available at the Fairmont Copley Plaza store. Also, children receive a Catie Copley cookie at check-in time.
Jim Carey, the director of concierge at the hotel and caretaker of the Catie phenomenon, takes considerable pride in Miss Copley’s stature, saying she is not only the queen of all Boston canines, but the most famous dog in the world.
Catie made her debut at the Fairmont Copley four-and-half years ago, according to Suzanne M. Wenz, regional director of public relations for the Fairmont Copley Plaza.
“When we finished our $35 million renovation of the hotel in 2004, we really wanted it to be a home away from home for guests,” said Wenz. “We thought, ‘What’s more like someone’s home than having a dog to greet people in the lobby?’’’
Wenz said the hotel partnered with the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, Inc., and found Catie, who was being trained as a guide dog. “During a visit to the veterinarian, it was determined that Catie’s visit was not perfect, so she couldn’t be a guide dog. When we called the foundation and explained that we wanted to start a canine ambassador program at the hotel, they felt that Catie would be a really great fit because of her personable nature and calm demeanor,” Wenz added.
Carey, who has worked at the hotel for 30 years, became Catie Copley’s chief companion. Catie goes home every night with Carey, to be with his wife and their children in Malden.
Carey said Catie, a stocky, strong dog who has her own custom-made engraved, red leash [“Red is her color,” says Wenz], enjoys her ambassadorial role, especially accompanying people on walks through the streets of Boston. “Catie loves to walk. She has her own special routes that she takes. She loves walking in her backyard, which is Copley Square – and walking past the Boston Public Library, the Trinity Church, and the beautiful surroundings there. She also walks down to the Public Garden. Everyone, from the park rangers to the hot dog vendors, knows Catie.”
Guests can schedule Catie in her appointment book for 30-minute walks. Some guests call months in advance to make sure that Catie is available.
“Whether guests are checking or checking out or getting off the elevator, they’ll come and pat Catie,” said Carey. “She’s like a magnet that draws everyone toward our desk.”
CAPTION: Jim Carey, the concierge director at the Fairmont Copley Plaza, and Catie Copley.

Catie Copley is becoming a media darling and receives e-mails from all over the world at her address [Catie.Copley@fairmont. com]. She’s been featured on Boston, national, and international television and written up in newspapers and magazines.
Carey seems to enjoy basking in the glow of Catie’s growing popularity. Carey signs scores of autographs, and wearing his dapper concierge uniform, he is frequently asked to join Catie in photo opportunities with guests. Some of the celebrities who have met Catie include Mary Tyler Moore, Bernadette Peters, Mary Louise Parker, Paul Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, and NFL Hall of Famer Dan Marino.
Catie does have one special privilege - the perk of being available to take a little nap during working hours.
“Catie is the only person at the hotel who is allowed to sleep on the job,” said Wenz. “She’ll take a little snooze now and then, but Catie has been more popular than we ever anticipated. We knew having Catie would be a success and guests would really love her, but the popularity has really just surged.”

The tax holiday

Last weekend’s tax holiday spurred sales. It gave a badly needed lift to consumers, and most importantly, to retailers who are experiencing a downward trend because of the tremendous rise in the price for gasoline and oil, the sub-prime disaster, making loans nearly impossible to get, the rising cost for every kind of consumer good and products of all kinds, the declining value of real estate at almost every level of the marketplace, etc., ad nauseum, ad infinitum.
At times, it seems as though the world is coming to an end, if we listen to the news, read it on the Internet or still watch it with the family on the television.
Before 1914, there was no income tax. When you made $10,000, you kept $10,000.
Nearly all the early great American fortunes were accumulated during the decades leading up to the imposition of the income tax. Industries rose. Cities became metropolises. The American nation became an important place in the world economy.
But not until the imposition of the income tax did the government come to a place where it had billions upon billions to spend, and then came, of course, the banking system – imperfect until Franklin Roosevelt put the Federal Reserve Board into place at the onset of the Depression.
By then, the nation had advanced from an income tax to a corporate tax, to a social welfare program and welfare itself.
Fast forward to today, to last weekend, if you will.
Consumers scurried about making more significant purchases in order to save a few hundred dollars.
It was a savings, but kind of pathetic, considering the modern tax situation Americans confront each time they make a purchase or earn a few extra dollars – or a much greater amount.
The irony of this past tax holiday in Massachusetts is that the state is facing a serious shortfall of tax income next year, and so, the notion of a tax holiday - indeed, the reality of a tax holiday - however brief, puts off the inevitable – higher taxes.
One wonders whether this nation was a better place when there was no income tax.
You could make much more money, unfettered – a delightful prospect at the time.
But there was no Social Security, no social welfare infrastructure. The government was not caring.
Handing the amorphous and irresponsible United States government billions of dollars to spend has led to the national debt piling up recently in stupendous amounts. Social Security is at risk. Medicare is at risk. In fact, the government puts us all at risk by making borrowings and continuing wasteful spending without having a plan for the future except to raise our taxes again.
We hope you enjoyed the tax holiday.
It was the personification of folly.