Did You Know
Boston University has implicitly emphasized community service since its founding, and explicitly since 1911, when University President Lemuel H. Murlin spoke of the University "In the heart of the city, in the service of the city." Murlin's ideal was invoked most recently by BU President Robert A. Brown in his inaugural address in April.
Some four decades after Murlin spoke, BU students were still involved in community service, as they are today. This photograph from November 1955 shows a group of children from the Mission Hill housing project aboard a chartered MTA bus bearing the sign, BU Service Day Special. A placard beneath the rollsign suggests that the outing - or at least this bus - was chaperoned by BU members of the service societies Phi Epsilon Epsilon, Theta Phi Alpha, and Kappa Kappa Gamma.