A Letter from the President

To our alumni and friends,

Greetings from Boston! And Dakar. And London. And Guatemala. And Sydney. Also Shanghai, Dublin, Syria, and any of the dozens of other locations around the world where you can find Boston University.

Truly we are a global university. BU students and faculty are teaching, researching, and helping people around the world. Likewise, people from everywhere are coming to our campuses to join our community. The chance for Boston University to interact with “the world” has never been greater than it is now. And we’re proud to tell that story.

So this year’s annual report gives many answers to the question: “Where’s BU?” For the full experience, view the videos we include throughout this site.

No annual report introduction would be complete without an overview of the financial performance of the University. This information is specially relevant given the financial crisis of last fall and the recession that has gripped the world. We were struck by the precipitous drop in the capital markets; our endowment lost a little over 21 percent. Yet I’m proud to tell you the University is financially healthy and that, in fact, we are reporting the best annual financial performance in our history.

Most importantly, our enterprises of education and research are flourishing. Research and scholarship at the University continued to thrive, with sponsored programs revenue growing to $350.4 million. And the 4,140 freshmen this fall met all our expectations for quality and enthusiasm, even with an expected increase in financial need.

Boston University continues to move forward as a great urban research university. You’ll find details on this site.

Sincerely,

Robert A. Brown
President