Announcement from President Brown
September 7, 2022
Dear Colleagues,
The academic year is off to a wonderful start with our campuses full of life and enthusiasm. Our freshman class is the most academically talented and diverse in the University’s history. Ambitious and accomplished students populate our graduate programs, and we have welcomed extraordinary new faculty members who will infuse energy and creativity into our missions of research, scholarship, and teaching. The cycle of creativity and education that begins each academic year has started and continues to amplify.
This is the beginning of my eighteenth year leading this amazing University with Beverly at my side. My longevity in the position and the natural rhythms of the University have led me to the conclusion that it is time for me to step aside and for new leadership to take the helm. I am writing to let you know that I have informed the Board of Trustees to plan that this will be my last year as President of Boston University. I have asked that they begin the process of identifying your next President so that I may step down at the end of the academic year. My intent is to take a sabbatical, join the faculty of the College of Engineering, and return to teaching and writing.
Kenneth Feld, Chair of the Board of Trustees, and Ahmass Fakahany, the incoming Chair of the Board (starting September 29th), will communicate with you soon about the search process for the next President.
I expect this year to be busy, as there are several projects that I would like to complete before stepping down. There also will be time later to take stock of what we have accomplished together and to reflect on the future. As we start this transition, I am excited about the future for Boston University. The University has a strong foundation for continuing as one of the great private research universities in the world dedicated to inclusive excellence. We have good governance, strong administrative and academic leadership, healthy finances, and a track record of envisioning our future, plotting a course to it, and executing.
The 2030 Strategic Plan is an excellent roadmap for the University’s future. Also, the success of our first comprehensive campaign that ended in 2019 and the continued growth of philanthropic support demonstrate that we can galvanize our 350,000 alumni and our friends to support the University and its aspirations.
We have reached many notable milestones over the past years. Most importantly, we solidified our role as a major research university, with our faculty leading us to the forefront of traditional and emerging fields across the breadth of the University. We are committed to excellence and impact, and it shows in the growing recognition of individual faculty and programs, and the placement of our doctoral students. Also, last year our federal research expenditures topped $630 million, an all-time high. Our recognition in 2012 by membership in the Association of American Universities places us among the leading research universities in the country.
Of all our accomplishments, I am most proud of our large commitment to undergraduate student need-based financial aid and its impact on the diversity of our student body. The results speak for themselves—we estimate that our domestic freshman class this fall includes 25 percent Pell grant recipients, 25 percent first-generation students, and 33 percent underrepresented minority students, while our acceptance rate hit an all-time low of 14 percent. Today, more than ever, Boston University’s student body reflects the diversity of the United States and abroad. This diversity is at the heart of our values.
Our faculty’s innovation in education has been equally gratifying. The results are everywhere, exemplified by the BU Hub general undergraduate program, the paradigm-shifting online MBA in the Questrom School of Business, and the growing entrepreneurial activity in Innovate@BU. We are creating programs that give extraordinary opportunities to our residential students, and making possible a Boston University education for new student cohorts.
Finally, the creation of the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences demonstrates our willingness to evolve the academic structure of the University to maximize the impact of this critical field across the University. Importantly, this development and others—such as the Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering and the concept of disciplinary convergence at the heart of the College of Engineering’s Strategic Plan—show that we are leveraging the interconnections between disciplines in new and exciting ways across the institution. Developing these interconnections is crucially important as the University continually pivots to address the needs of an ever-changing society; needs that require solutions that are far beyond the reach of single disciplines and approaches.
I am extremely gratified that we continued to make progress during the COVID-19 pandemic, which will be remembered as one of the most difficult times in our professional and personal lives and in the history of the University. Our success during these years was a result of the extraordinary efforts of our faculty and staff and the remarkable resilience of our students.
Boston University is an astonishing community of faculty, staff, and students. Helping lead Boston University has been the most fulfilling work of my professional career. Beverly and I want to thank each of you for your help as we have worked together toward our shared goals. I look forward to the year ahead and to welcoming my successor.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Brown
President