In 2021, a team of BU law students helped advocate for those targeted by false criminal charges to seek police accountability under federal civil rights law.

That advocacy took the form of research for an amicus brief—coauthored by Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig, and Professors Jasmine Gonzales Rose and Jessica Silbey, and others—that was submitted to the US Supreme Court on behalf of the School of Law and BU’s Center For Antiracist Research.

The legal brief is just one way the School of Law is collaborating with the center to prepare the next generation of antiracist lawyers>. The latest partnership led to the introduction, in 2022, of the Antiracist Scholars For Progress, Innovation & Racial Equity (ASPIRE) program, which provides a full-tuition scholarship and equips selected students with the tools to challenge policies and practices that maintain racial inequities.

The program was developed by Onwuachi-Willig, the inaugural Ryan Roth Gallo & Ernest J. Roth Gallo Professor—the nation’s first endowed professorship in critical race theory—in concert with Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities Ibram X. Kendi, founding director of the Center for Antiracist Research. In addition to the tuition benefit, ASPIRE students will work with a faculty mentor, attend workshops, and take part in a paid, one-semester internship at the Center for Antiracist Research.

For society to move forward in an equitable and inclusive manner, Onwuachi-Willig says, the next generation of lawyers needs not only to understand how law has contributed to inequities but also how the profession can correct them. “Law influences every major racial problem and inequity in our society.”

The mission of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research is to convene researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to figure out novel and practical ways to understand, explain, and solve seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice. We foster exhaustive racial research, research-based policy innovation, data-driven educational and advocacy campaigns, and narrative-change initiatives. We are working toward building an antiracist society that ensures equity and justice for all.

Whereas racist research historically has posed the question, “What is wrong with people?” antiracist research now asks a different question, a better question: “What is wrong with policies?” Our belief is that framing research on race and racism around antiracist questions leads to antiracist narratives, effective policy solutions, and impactful advocacy campaigns that cut to the root of racial inequality: racist policy.

Here’s a powerful proposition: Make a gift today that will still be creating opportunities at BU a century from now.

BU’s history of inclusion for all is mirrored in President Brown’s own challenge proposal: the Century Challenge. This unique philanthropic tool greatly increases scholarship support and helps keep our doors open to the best and brightest students from around the world.

If you establish an endowed scholarship of $100,000 or more—a scholarship that will bear the name of your choosing—BU will match, dollar for dollar, the income from that fund for scholarship purposes for 100 years after the fund’s activation. We will provide these matching funds for the first $100 million of endowment support pledged to the Century Challenge.

For a century, therefore, the good that is done in your name will be doubled. And just as important: The power of your scholarship will increase annually, as both our endowment and the University’s match increase.

For more information about how to participate in the Century Challenge, please contact Andrew Horgan, Assistant Vice President, Major Gifts, at ahorgan@bu.edu or 617-358-1353.

Public relations major and visual arts minor Chike Asuzu is passionate about visual storytelling. And as editor-in-chief of Charcoal, the student-run multimedia magazine dedicated to celebrating artists of color and their stories, Asuzu (COM’23) gets to put that passion to good use. The publication, focused on the arts, culture, and fashion, published by the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, explores the intersection of identity and art.

At the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, students are united in their desire to learn about themselves and one another. Together, they come alive in pursuit of greater understanding through intellectual discourse, active listening, and friendship. The center advances Dr. Thurman’s philosophy of self-exploration and community building through meaningful and creative shared experiences.

Founded by Dean George K. Makechnie in 1986, the HTC has been a source of programs, events, and experiences that foster critical thought, encourage new connections, and provoke conversation on the issues of the day. The conversations vary in range and intensity, covering topics from domestic and international politics, to the history and future of Boston, to more local conversations like the best ways to study for exams at Boston University.

Dr. Howard Thurman believed that the search for common ground is a twofold journey of personal self-exploration and of building community, and that “…meaningful and creative shared experiences between people can be more compelling than all of the faiths, fears, concepts and ideologies that separate them. And, if these experiences can be multiplied and sustained over a sufficient duration of time, then any barrier that separates one person from another can be undermined and eliminated.” The Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground seeks to make those meaningful and creative shared experiences happen for Boston University students.