Thank You!

Donations from alumni, parents, students and friends of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences support all facets of our educational and research work. Your generosity allows us to develop and enrich our offerings across the college and graduate school, providing opportunities for learning and engagement in our classrooms and beyond—including in internships, research projects, and co-curricular activities—ensuring that today’s students can explore their interest, pursue their passions, and prepare for a successful future. 

Your support helps advance high-priority initiatives such as:

  • Experiential learning opportunities, including internships, fieldwork, travel, and professional development opportunities that help students take arts and sciences into action.
  • Scholarships that make BU accessible to all qualified students and enable us to compete for talented students from many backgrounds who enrich our CAS community in the classroom and beyond.
  • Research that enables us to tackle an extraordinary range of global challenges, often through novel interdisciplinary collaborations within initiatives like the BU Center for the Humanities, the Center for Innovation in Social Science, the new Center for Computing & Data Sciences.

Some examples of the wonderful philanthropic investments our alumni have made, include:

Eleanor (Ellie) Cohen Gruber (CAS`61), together with her husband, Martin Gruber, gave back to Arts & Sciences to ensure that others can have the same educational experience that she had, establishing the Eleanor Cohen Gruber (CAS’61) and Martin J. Gruber Scholarship Fund at the College of Arts & Sciences;

Chemistry Professor Scott Schaus (CAS`95) honored his mother by establishing the Irene Sophia Prado Endowed Scholarship Fund to provide need-based support to undergraduates pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), with preference given to women of Mexican American or Latina backgrounds; and

Mark Mobius (CFA’58, COM’59) made a generous $1M gift to establish the Mark Mobius Student Research and Travel Endowment Fundat the College of Arts & Sciences, a permanently endowed fund to provide support for research and fieldwork conducted by undergraduate and graduate archeology students at the College of Arts & Sciences.

An anonymous alumnus gave $2.5 million to support the Arts & Sciences in Action initiative, which seeks to ensure that undergraduate students have the tools and opportunities to explore and discover the tremendous range of possibilities within Arts & Sciences that will maximize their degree experiences and prepare them for whatever the future might hold.

An anonymous alumnus provided funding for scholarship support for graduate students at the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Literary Translation, with a preference for students focused on Chinese literature, or to an undergraduate at the College of Arts & Sciences who has distinguished themselves for academic work relating to Chinese literature and/or culture.

Additionally, many of you have given to the CAS Annual Fund, CAS Dean’s Fund, and CAS Parents and Families Fund. These funds are particularly helpful as they allow us the flexibility to channel resources where they are most needed and to react agilely to new funding needs that come up. This past year, these gifts allowed us to support experiential learning opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students and invest in faculty opportunities to promote their research as well as seed innovative interdisciplinary research projects, as well as to support curriculum innovation and foster community, diversity, equity, and inclusion. This included:

  • Supplemental funding for the Favorite Poem Project, founded by Professor Robert Pinsky, director of the Creative Writing Program;
  • Funding for Conversations in Arts & Ideas, which brought the renowned choreographer, director, and dancer Bill T. Jones for a public conversation about his life and work; and 
  • Funding for experiential learning opportunities including MetroBridge, BU Spark!, and the TechTogether hackathon. 

Finally, we are grateful to the 1,216 donors and volunteers who participated in Giving Day 2022, our day-long fundraising event in April. Alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and students came together to support their favorite department or program , as well as college-wide dean’s funds, raising a total of $231,329.79 for Arts & Sciences. Special thanks to our challenge sponsors who inspired members of our community to do more and helped raise the bar for Giving Day 2022. With support from across the globe, several departments went on to be leaders in challenge categories: Romance Studies, Political Science, Psychology & Brain Sciences, and Earth & Environment. We look forward to Giving Day 2023. when we celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Arts & Sciences.


Our Donors

This report recognizes the more than 3,760 donors to the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, including all of our many institutes, departments, and programs. The incredible generosity of these alumni, parents, students and friends has an incredible effect on our current students and faculty. We thank these donors for their continued commitment to our institution.

Boston University symbols classify the following special constituencies and giving behaviors:

Legend
◊  Annual Fund Leadership Giving Society □  Matching gift indicator (applies to organizations only)
Φ  Recent Graduate Giving Society ¤  Faculty/Staff Member
✰  First time Donor ■  Parent
*  Loyal Donor  Deceased individuals are listed in italics

 

Stewarding Our Resources

In order to achieve our many goals, we remain careful stewards of our resources.  In fiscal year 2021/2022, the college had a balanced, unrestricted expense budget of $164,107,323, compared with $149,077,560 the previous year. This covered salaries, fringe benefits, and operating expenses.