As the executive director of Student Affairs, John Battaglino said that he constantly thinks about how to support Boston University students in their personal endeavors. One of his favorite moments, he said, is seeing them meet those goals.
“My job is about supporting students who are in pursuit of their passions and chasing their dreams,” Battaglino said in an interview. “When they accomplish these incredible feats, that’s what I love to see.”
Battaglino was born and raised in Waltham as the middle child of five in a middle-class Italian family, he said. While his mother stayed at home, his father worked as a self-employed businessman and, despite having only an eighth grade education, built a college bookstore company.
“He was a worker. He understood the value of education, but for him, it was more about taking big opportunities offered to him,” he said.
Battaglino said his younger brother Joel, born deaf and with Down Syndrome, also inspired him.
“He’s the epitome of special in my mind. He’s far and away the most intellectual person I’ve ever met,” he said.
Battaglino said growing up with a sibling with special needs was a blessing because it taught him patience and compassion – values he said help him relate with students.
“We all have a better understanding of how important each and every person is based on my brother,” he said.
Having found the classroom’s learning environment to be dull, Battaglino said he decided to drop out of Bentley University. He traveled to Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and Florida, managing of restaurants, hotels and convention centers.
“While my parents always put a lot of emphasis on education, it wasn’t as important to me at the time I dropped out,” Battaglino said.
He eventually settled down to work as a manager at his father’s bookstore. Barnes & Noble bought the company, he said, and ultimately brought him to BU.
“The next stop after working in Iowa would have been to travel somewhere else in the world, but I wanted to come back home,” Battaglino said.
Battaglino said he first joined the BU staff as associate director of Residence Life. He credits Marc Robillard, director of Housing, with being the first person to encourage him to finish his college degree in management studies. Following Robillard’s advice, Battaglino said he enrolled in the Metropolitan College.
“At that point, my life was good, but I just wanted that completion of a degree because it was important to me and to my dad. I wanted to do right by him,” he said.
Battaglino describes his college experience as “unique.” He received a Bachelor’s degree in management in 2008 and a master’s degree in higher education administration in 2010. While he worked towards his degrees, Battaglino was hired by the Dean of Students office to oversee the Student Activities Office. His new job, he said, was to serve as a mentor to students and support Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore.
Daniel Solworth, an assistant to the Dean of Students, said that working with Battaglino is like working with his brother.
“Because all of us work intense hours, it’s important to have a family-like atmosphere. We very much work in tandem and I consider him to be a friend,” Solworth said.
Battaglino said he wishes he had more resources to help students.
“BU is such a huge enterprise that it can appear bureaucratic at times, but there are so many individuals that this bureaucracy is overplayed,” he said.
Battaglino said his family experiences at BU have extended outside of the office, as he raised his family in Shelton Hall.
He added that he enjoys spending time in places popular with students, such as the BU Pub, where he hosts trivia night, Cornwall’s Pub and The Dugout.
“It’s by design that we hang out in places where [students] feel comfortable enough tocome up and talk to us. I get to learn what students really need,” he said. “That’s really what my job is all about.”
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