The First 7 Years
The Future
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There are a lot of ways to describe our progress. There’s our reduced class sizes and new digital learning tools. There’s our hiring and mentoring of the next generation of award-winning professors and researchers. There’s our highly acclaimed liberal arts programs seamlessly joined with our world-class professional schools. Then, not to be ignored, there’s our exceptional internships, including a new one focused on nonprofits, and our career counseling, ensuring our students’ successful futures. There’s our focus on global experiences through our expansive study abroad program. And let’s not forget our bit of Boston, where we’ve built a robust student residential community, enlivening the whole neighborhood.
A Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow, Kopell is co-director of the Center for Computational Neuroscience & Neural Technology and directs the Cognitive Rhythms Collaborative, a group of labs working on brain dynamics.
Nisenholtz oversaw the marriage of print and online content while with the New York Times, including pioneering the use of RSS feeds. He now brings his expertise to BU while still consulting for the Times.
Galea is a leading expert in public health, especially brain disorders, common mood-anxiety disorders, and substance abuse. He has published over 500 articles, 50 chapters and commentaries, and 9 books.
Recipient of the De La Torre Bueno Prize in dance studies, Preston focuses on modernist literature, performance and dance, feminist and queer theory, and transnational and postcolonial studies.
A well-known scholar at the intersection of law and economics, Hylton is widely recognized for his work across a broad spectrum of topics in law and economics, including antitrust, labor law, and intellectual property.
A leading virologist and expert in the molecular biology of Marburg and Ebola viruses, Mühlberger works at the highest bio-safety level as Director of the Biomolecule Production Core at NEIDL.
That’s all a good start but there’s much more. Let’s move beyond our campus. After a sustained and concerted effort over the past seven years to bolster our already formidable research prowess, we were asked to join the prestigious Association of American Universities, an exclusive group of leading research institutions in North America, including Cornell, Caltech, MIT, and Harvard. In fact, Boston University was the first private university invited to join since 1995. It was both an honor and a validation. Our tireless, dedicated scientists, researchers, and doctoral students have been pushing the envelope for years, from inner space to outer space. Recent advances include a bionic pancreas controlled by a smartphone-like device, cells engineered to grow healthy organs for transplantation, and the unlocking of mechanisms behind the dementia associated with repetitive brain injury (which helped lead to rule changes in the NFL). In FY2014, we received $350.5M in sponsored research awards. And over the past seven years, our federal grants have grown or stayed level despite government sequestration and a still-stressed economy.
We’ve turned the heads of other education players, too. Since President Robert A. Brown first led the creation of the strategic plan in 2007, our ranking in U.S. News & World Report has jumped nearly 20 spots, landing at 41 in 2014. Outside validations such as these have led to one bumper crop after another of academically talented students. Last year, we received 54,191 applications, with early-decision applicants up 15.7% from 2012. The average GPA of this year’s incoming class clocked in at 3.64. And they’re not just book smart. One interned at NASA. Another played piano with jazz virtuoso Wynton Marsalis. That sort of experience only sparks other students to expand their minds and horizons. Our retention rate last year was 93.1%, our graduation rate was 84.3%, and our employment rate 90%.
And we’re far from the only believers. Last year alone, some 33,302 alums, students, parents, friends, corporations, and foundations expressed their faith through their checkbooks as we work to raise a billion dollars in our first comprehensive fundraising campaign. In FY2014, we took in $132.5M in cash gifts, and 23 big-hearted souls pledged a million dollars-plus, growing that distinctive club to more than 120 members. These funds will further transform the University, supporting endowed professorships, new research endeavors, robust financial aid packages, and new buildings and classrooms.