Spectrum Arts Festival: about BU
Boston University is one of the leading private research and teaching institutions in the world today, with two primary campuses in the heart of Boston and programs around the world.
Boston University was chartered in 1869 by Lee Claflin, Jacob Sleeper, and Isaac Rich, three successful Methodist businessmen whose abolitionist ideals led them to envision and create a university that was inclusive—that opened its doors to the world—and engaged in service to and collaboration with the city of Boston.
From the day of its opening, Boston University has admitted students of both sexes and every race and religion. It is with pride that we count Martin Luther King, Jr. among our alumni. What makes us prouder still is the fact that when Dr. King received his doctorate from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1955, he was taking his place in a long line of individuals dating back to the University’s founding. Other notable alumni include the first woman to earn a Ph.D., the first woman admitted to the bar in Massachusetts, the first Native American to graduate with a doctorate in medicine, and the first African-American psychiatrist in the United States.
The University’s founders were ahead of their time in the way they engaged Boston University in direct service to the community. The third president of the University, Lemuel Murlin, described a university “in the heart of the city, in the service of the city.” As we have evolved and diversified as a university, that notion of service has expanded to include not only our city, but our world as well. The magnitude of the University's engagement—which spans public education, health care, and the arts—is unparalleled in American higher education.
To learn more about Boston University, visit www.bu.edu/info/about