PUBLISHED BY THE BOSTON COLLEGE OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Krafts’ Gift Endows Messina Deanship
INSIDE 2 Around Campus
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OCTOBER 23, 2025 VOL. 33 NO. 5
BY JACK DUNN ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
The Messina College dean’s position will be named the Patti and Jonathan Kraft Family Deanship, thanks to a gift from University Trustee Patti Kraft and her husband Jonathan Kraft. Erick Berrelleza, S.J., the founding dean of the school, will be the first holder of the deanship. The Krafts, whose son graduated from Boston College in 2024, said they were pleased to make the endowed gift in recognition both of Messina College’s success in providing educational opportunity to first-generation students, and the University’s ongoing commitment to formative education. “Since we joined the Boston College community as parents, we have been in-
PHOTOS BY CAITLIN CUNNINGHAM AND TIM CORREIRA
credibly impressed by the formative education that the University offers all Eagles, and now extends to the students of Messina College,” said Patti and Jonathan Kraft. “Equity of opportunity ranks highly among our priorities, and our family is honored to support this mission that we so strongly believe in. Endowing this position is our way of demonstrating that belief.” The Krafts’ gift supports Boston College’s Soaring Higher campaign, of which they serve as co-chairs. The campaign seeks to raise critical funding for strategic priorities in financial aid, academics, and student life. To date, $1.9 billion has been raised towards the campaign’s $3 billion goal. The gift qualifies for an additional $2 million challenge grant provided by an anonymous donor to inspire new investments in the University’s scholarly en-
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Erick Berrelleza, S.J., is the inaugural Kraft Family Dean of Messina College. photo by caitlin cunningham
A New ‘Second Estate’? In her new book, BC Law’s Ray Madoff says tax system has created an American aristocracy BY PHIL GLOUDEMANS STAFF WRITER
Boston College’s annual Homecoming Week included Fresh Fest (above), the Undergraduate Student Government of Boston College’s signature event for first-year students, held on Newton Campus. Also taking place was the College Athletic Board’s Fall Fan Fest on Stokes Lawn (right), where undergraduates enjoyed food, raffles, games, and other activities—and the opportunity to display their own miniature Baldwin.
In pre-revolutionary France, the highly privileged nobility known as the Second Estate was legally exempt from paying taxes, shifting the burden to everyone else, including peasants, wage-earners, and the professional and business classes. In Ray D. Madoff’s new book, The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy, the Boston College Law professor and Eileen Colligan Morrissey Law Faculty Fellow reveals how the American tax system has changed over the past 40 years to create a situation in which the wealthiest Americans are allowed to effectively secede to a tax-free version of American life, forming the contemporary second estate. “It’s particularly surprising given the intention and design of the American tax system, which was conceived in response to the highly regressive tariffs of the early 20th century to impose its greatest burdens on those with the greatest capacity to pay,” said Madoff. “Through the progressive income tax, adopted in 1913, and the additional estate tax implemented in 1916, the levies were intended to limit
concentrations of wealth among the richest Americans.” While the American tax structure was meant to serve as a counter to inequality today, it does just the opposite: Imposing its greatest burdens on earners at all income levels, while those with high wealth get a free pass, according to Madoff. She believes that the American public would never knowingly accept a system in which the wealthiest Americans were given a free pass on taxes, but it’s the result of confusion about who bears the costs of government. Because individual tax burdens occur under three different taxes—income, payroll, estate, and gift— it’s difficult for Americans to understand the overall picture. An oft-quoted statistic about the allocation of income taxes fuels the misunderstanding: Those with the top one percent of income pay 40 percent of income taxes, while 40 percent of Americans pay no income taxes at all. This measurement suggests that the richest Americans carry the lion’s share of the burden while a significant portion of Americans are freeloading off their largesse. But it’s highly misleading, she Continued on page 5