Institutional Strengths

1. Seventeen Schools and Colleges

Boston University’s 17 schools and colleges offer a broad palette of programs leading to professional, graduate, and traditional liberal arts degrees; and the range of disciplines represented across the schools and colleges gives students a rich menu of educational options. Of these academic units, 14 are located on the Charles River Campus and report directly to the University Provost. Three health-science related schools (the School of Medicine, the Goldman School of Dental Medicine, and the School of Public Health) make up the Medical Campus and report to the Provost of the Medical Campus, who also serves as Dean of the School of Medicine.

On the Charles River Campus (CRC), the College of Arts & Sciences enrolls nearly fifty percent of all undergraduate students and provides the liberal arts foundation for the majority of our undergraduate programs. Undergraduates from all the schools and colleges take approximately fifty percent of their credits in the College of Arts & Sciences. Because of the size and quality of the College of Arts & Sciences, Boston University can ensure that graduates of both liberal arts and professional programs have a strong foundation in the liberal arts.

Leading professional schools on the CRC include: the School of Management, School of Law, College of Engineering, College of Communication, College of Fine Arts, School of Social Work, and the College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College.

Faculty members can take advantage of this disciplinary range to launch research initiatives that depend on interdisciplinary collaboration. Well over 100 centers and institutes bring scholars and students from across the University together to address particular issues or create new knowledge. For example, the Photonics Center is a national resource in scholarship and technology translation in the interdisciplinary field of photonics—the practical use of light. The Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies & Civilizations brings together scholars from fields such as anthropology, linguistics, and history (among others) to conduct research and educate a new generation of students in Muslim Studies.

2. Undergraduate Education

The University’s emergence in research does not obscure a cherished tradition of providing high-quality instruction. As stated as the second goal of the strategic plan, the University is committed to “continue to develop the special undergraduate educational environment that combines our commitment to a liberal arts and sciences education with professional opportunities, while creating flexible educational opportunities to leverage the depth of CAS and our other schools and colleges.”

Much progress has been made in recent years to take advantage of the breadth of the University for the benefit of our students. For example, the University Honors College (www.bu.edu/uhc/) will launch in the fall of 2010 as a new interdisciplinary program for fulfilling the undergraduate general education requirements, augmenting curricular pathways such as traditional divisional studies and the Core Curriculum offered by the College of Arts & Sciences, and the cohort-based curriculum in the College of General Studies.

A recent University-wide task force on undergraduate education led by the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education has filed its report (One BU: Unlocking the Undergraduate Experience, at www.bu.edu/unlock/) and proposed several initiatives that will expand opportunities for students and strengthen programs. Creating consensus around these initiatives and implementing the recommendations of this report will be a major responsibility of the University Provost. Significant progress towards consensus has been made and resources are being allocated. A new Student Service Center that will house expanded and integrated services for undergraduates has been approved for construction, which is being funded with internally generated reserves.

3. Organizational Coordination and Structural Adaptiveness

The University does not follow the “every tub on its own bottom” dictum in either planning or resource allocation. Boston University’s administrative and budgetary structure allows for fiscal flexibility by centralizing resource allocation with the President, Provosts, and Executive Vice President. Through this approach, resources can be allocated to stimulate and nurture promising initiatives or to support strategic priorities, while giving academic and administrative units appropriate incentives for growth in impact and quality, and at the same time maintaining fiscal discipline. The University Provost is a critical leader in the system and, to be successful, must become a master of the dynamics of revenues and expenses as well as the details of academic programs.

4. Boston

Boston University’s location in the heart of Boston is a strategic advantage; students and faculty are drawn to the city’s cultural and intellectual richness. The city at the University’s doorstep is a place where students can find internships, job opportunities, recreation, great museums and libraries, as well as a vibrant social life. The concentration of universities, research institutes, medical schools, and teaching hospitals makes Boston one of the world’s great centers of intellectual activity. Boston University is a major institution in this environment, currently ranking as the sixth-largest employer in the city. Even as the University competes for its place in this demanding environment, it benefits from the ferment and stimulation that accompany the concentration of educational institutions.

5. Engagement in the City and the World

Boston University’s third president, Lemuel Murlin, described an institution “in the heart of the City, in the service of the City.” That early commitment to service now reaches over the horizon. Boston University is diverse in the best sense, genuinely global, and aspires to create new knowledge and offer solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Its scale and institutional flexibility make it a rugged vehicle for finding solutions through research and preparing future generations of students for fulfilling and productive lives. Boston University’s traditions of engagement and outreach remain strong. The University is committed to its enduring work in Boston in collaboration with schools and health centers, and it seeks to be of service in whatever part of the globe its diverse capacities can be applied. For example, the Center for Global Health & Development is an interdisciplinary center based in the School of Public Health and dedicated to improving the health of low-income or marginalized populations around the world. Research initiatives launched by this center are currently active in more than twenty countries, drawing on the knowledge and talents of faculty members from both campuses.

Boston University has a well-established and broad array of study abroad  programs (see www.bu.edu/abroad/); the University currently operates 75 programs in more than 20 countries as part of this effort. The University is expanding its offerings at overseas campuses. Programs are offered at the Brussels campus (www.bu.edu/brussels/) and the University recently opened a graduate dental institute in Dubai. The University has much more ambitious plans for overseas operations that will require significant time and effort from University leadership.