BU Women’s Council

On February 7, 2020, it was announced that the Boston University Women’s Guild and the Boston University Women’s Council merger was complete.

The BUWG is excited to continue the traditions of the visionary women who started the Boston University Women’s Council, by continuing to provide scholarships and graduate housing at Fisk House to women graduate students at Boston University.  We look forward to working with the former members of the Women’s Council to protect the legacy and mission of the Council. 

The BU Women’s Council was founded and dedicated to helping the talented young women who have chosen to pursue graduate degrees at Boston University, to advance the educational experience of these women by raising scholarship funds, to providing subsidized housing, and to promoting programs that enabled women to draw on the University’s rich resources.

The Council had its origins in 1912 when a group of women graduates got together to promote Boston University’s interests and help support its women students. One of its members, Louisa Holman Fisk, convinced the University President and Board of Trustees of the need for a Dean of Women. When the University gave the women the challenge of raising $150,000 to endow this position, they succeeded, and at the 1924 fall convocation Lucy Jenkins Franklin was inducted into office as the University’s first Dean of Women. After this achievement, the group met the following spring and under Fisk’s leadership established the Boston University Women’s Council. Among its goals were raising the funds to provide a women’s dormitory and creating more opportunities for women students to take part in University life.

The Council met its first goal by 1933. That year, with a gift of $15,000, the Council helped the University purchase a lovely brownstone in Boston’s Back Bay, where many of the University’s colleges were located. Named for the Council’s first president, Fisk House still provides a residence for 16 women graduate students at nominal cost. To this day, Fisk House remains the only subsidized graduate student residence at Boston University.