The History of Our College

A Look Back Through Time

1870s

1873	The College of Liberal Arts is founded, with Rev. John W. Lindsay appointed first dean. It is located at 20 Beacon Street.
1873–79	The School of Oratory, a department of CAS and housed in the same building, includes faculty member Alexander Graham Bell, who teaches “Culture of the Speaking Voice.” A paid year’s leave allows him to perfect a medium for transmission of speech over wires. The first public transmission is from that building to the Atheneum Reading Room.
1874	The School of All Sciences (later, graduate school) opens. John W. Lindsay is appointed acting dean.
1877	Helen Magill, who was the only female in her class at Boston Public Latin school, earns her PhD in Greek, the first woman to earn a doctorate in the United States.

1880s

1881	Alice Stone Blackwell, daughter of famous suffragist Lucy Stone, graduates from CAS with honors and as class president (she received an honorary degree from BU in 1945).
1886	Founding of Klatsch Kollegium, an annual CAS festival involving students and, often, faculty. Continued until 1954.

More from the 1880s

1890s

1891	CAS Class of 1891 creates a yell: “B.U. Boom la la! / Nonaginta Una! / Ya! Ya! Ya!”
1896	The Men’s Club of 1896 was founded “on account of the comparative weakness in numbers of the male contingent of the College of Liberal Arts.”

More from the 1890s

1900s

1903	A Bostonia report states that although study in France would be good for students, most prefer to go to Germany because it is beneficial for their careers.
1907	Initiation of the system of having majors and minors.

More from the 1900s

1910s

1910	The School of All Sciences is renamed the graduate school. The matriculation fee is $10 for the MA and $25 for the PhD.
1914	After discussion of a need for a dean of women, Agnes Black, professor of elocution in CAS, is appointed Advisor of Women.
1917–19	World War I: CAS is very involved in war work. It provides training for women to become sick room assistants, has groups of students working with faculty volunteers to study issues related to the war; offers a course on Red Cross work; collects books for soldiers; women students knit sweaters for soldiers. CAS student council passes resolutions condemning Germany and support President Wilson.

More from the 1910s

1910	Upon raising $400,000 in endowment, three professorships in CAS are created.
1910	William E. Huntington is appointed dean of the graduate school.
1910	HUB Editor in Chief Emily Donnell Lord writes, “Unique among New England colleges is the personal interest that the Boston University professor has in his students.” She claims that BU faculty talk things over with students and actually enjoy class time.
1910	The new position of Men’s Secretary of CAS is created to advance the interests of men in CAS and to help prospective students. Mr. Everett Lord, AB 1900, AM 1906, is the first incumbent.
1911	Judson Coit is appointed as acting dean of the graduate school.
1912	700 out of 1600 students at Boston University are in CAS.
1913	Founding of the CAS Department of Education. A majority of CAS graduates go into teaching.
1913	The College of Business Administration (later the School of Management, later the Questrom School of Business) is established as a separate school with Everett Lord as the first dean. The idea for the separate school first emerged as part of the plan to encourage more men to go to BU.
1915	CAS has 18 courses of instruction: Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Economics and Social Science, Education and Social Administration, English Languages and Literature, Germanic Languages and Literature, Greek Language and Literature, History, Latin Language and Literature, Mathematics, Music, Oriental Languages, Philosophy, Physical Instruction, Physics, Public Speaking, Romance Languages and Literature.
1916	Arthur W. Weysse is appointed dean of the graduate school.
1918	The School of Education is established as a separate school.
1918	George H. Maxwell, an attorney and trustee of BU, endows the Professorship of US Citizenship in the Department of Social Science. “The chair is designed to instruct both foreign born and native Americans in the more solid elements of citizenship, thereby avoiding the national dangers so recently illustrated by conditions in Germany and Austria.”
1918	After Professor Emil Wilm, chair of philosophy, writes an essay claiming that dancing is a natural impulse and defending modern dancing (“dancing is the outward translation of inward rhythm”), some students lodge complaints about him.
1918	Establishment of the Augustus Howe Buck Education Fund for students of “high mental ability, physique, character” who chose education for altruism, not financial gains.
1919	Founding of El Club Espagnol with interest in Spanish, literature, Spain, and Mexico. Many other cultural and language clubs follow in the 1920s.
1919	CAS assembly adopts a resolution in favor of a League of Nations.

1920s

1923	CAS holds world fellowship week with speakers to discuss “the race question.”
1924	Admissions pressure on CAS is so great that it has to turn away 100 students hoping for admission.
1924	Hazing of CAS students requires that freshmen have to wear red caps, girls wear braids with green ribbons.
1924	Lucy Jenkins Franklin (CAS 1883, MA, PhD) is inducted as the first dean of women.

More from the 1920s

1930s

1934	CAS (unusually) has more male than female students.
1936	Founding of the Department of Psychology, drawing together other separate departments.

More from the 1930s

1940s

1941–45	World War II: Only three of 11 men’s dorms at BU are occupied; students participate in war work; regular activities such as orchestras and bands stop because of lack of male students. Thirty one members of the Class of 1946 died; they received their degree posthumously.
1944	CAS begins to plan for a post-war curriculum including, especially, a better foreign area and language curriculum and higher standards and more intense courses. We should expect two hours of preparation for each hour of lecture.

More from the 1940s

1950s

1951	Enrollment in Russian language has increased by 100% since the start of the Korean War.
1955	Martin Luther King, Jr. receives his PhD in systematic theology.

More from the 1950s

1960s

1965	Representative Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY) speaks in CAS on “the legislative politics of desegregation.”
1965	Numerous discussions and teach-ins on the Vietnam War, often with the participation and leadership of Professor Howard Zinn.
1968	Howard Zinn travels to North Vietnam to arrange for the release of captured pilots. He says that North Vietnam will negotiate when the bombing stops.

More from the 1960s

1960	Richard Millard is appointed acting dean of the graduate school.
1960	Lewis Rohrbaugh is appointed acting dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.
1960	Language instruction is offered in Japanese.
1960	Founding of the Center for the Philosophy and History of Science.
1961	Richard M. Millard is appointed sixth dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.
1961	Richard S. Bear is appointed dean of the graduate school.
1961	The Six-Year (later Seven-Year) Liberal Arts/Medical Degree Program is established.
1964	Dean Millard expresses worries that increased specialization may endanger the liberal arts program.
1964	Howard Zinn is appointed Professor in the Government Department.
1965	CAS lists 34 fields of concentration. They are: American History and Civilization, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Classical Civilization, Comparative Literature, Economics, Economics and Government, English, Fine Arts, Fine Arts and Religion, Geography, Geology, Germanic Languages and Literature, Government, Greek, History, History and the Social Studies, Latin, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Philosophy and Government, Philosophy and Religion, Philosophy and Sociology, Physics, Physics and Astronomy, Psychology, Romance Languages and Literature, Russian Language and Literature, Sociology, Speech, Teaching of Chemistry.
1966	Founding of the Department of Astronomy and the Department of Religion.
1967	William J. Newman is appointed acting dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.
1967	Founding of the Division of Religious and Theological Studies (later the Graduate Division of Religious Studies).
1967	CAS stops giving academic credit for ROTC.
1968	Calvin B.T. Lee is appointed seventh dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.
1968	CAS replaces the 3 credit per course, 5 courses per semester system with a 4 credit per course 4-course system. It also planned that students should be able to have seminar with less than 15 students each semester. Freshmen and sophomores would have interdisciplinary subjects, and juniors and seniors would have a seminar in their area of study.
1969	Founding of the African American Studies Program and the BU Marine Program.

1970s

1970	CAS and BU students join in the national unrest over the war in Vietnam. The student union calls a two-day strike in February; and 50–80% of students skip classes.
1975	Elie Wiesel accepts a permanent appointment as the Andrew W. Mellow Professor in the humanities with his base in the University Professors and the Department of Religion.

More from the 1970s

1980s

1982	Founding of the Department of Archaeology, the only stand-alone archaeology department in the United States.
1984	CAS achieves the $100 million mark in grants.

More from the 1980s

1990s

1996	The College of Liberal Arts is renamed the College of Arts & Sciences.
1997	Professor of English and Creative Writing Robert Pinsky is named US Poet Laureate.

More from the 1990s

2000s

2006	In his Strategic Plan, President Robert A. Brown commits to “strengthening the College of Arts and Sciences as central to the quality of our academic programs,” and looks forward to growth in the size of the faculty by as many as 100 positions in ten years.
2007	Virginia Sapiro is appointed the 12th dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and dean of the graduate school—the first woman to occupy those positions.
2009	A CAS Task Force on the First Year Experience submits a report that provides a blueprint for future development of a first year experience to support student integration and success.

More from the 2000s

2010s

2011	BU signs an “in perpetuity agreement” and makes a $10 million investment to become a partner in the 4.3 meter Discovery Channel Telescope in Arizona, extending its partnership with the Lowell Observatory for the benefit of BU astronomy researchers and students.
2013	Bombs explode at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Among the witnesses, injured, and helpers are many BU student, faculty, and staff. Statistics graduate student Lingzi Lu is killed by the explosion, and a fellowship fund is established in her name.
2014	Founding of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies within the College of Arts & Sciences, incorporating the former Department of International Relations and the many BU area studies programs. Adil Najam is appointed the first dean.
2015	Ann Cudd is appointed the 13th dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and dean of the graduate school.
2019	Stan Sclaroff is appointed the 14th dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and dean of the graduate school.

More from the 2010s

2010	The CAS Student Academic Life Office is reorganized with an expanded mission and the first full-time associate dean is hired.
2009	The Feld Family Foundation creates an endowed Feld Family Professorship of Teaching Excellence, the first professorship to be endowed in CAS as part of Boston University’s first capital campaign.
2010	The Class of 1970 has its delayed Commencement ceremony, with Dean Sapiro addressing the assembled class, including many CAS alumni.
2010	A new BA in Architectural Studies is founded and the Department of Art History changes its name to the Department of the History of Art & Architecture.
2010	Founding of the Biogeosciences Program.
2010	Submission of a report from the Women’s Studies Task Force that recommends broad changes in mission, organization, and activities. In a year, it changes its name to the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program (WGS).
2010	The CAS Honors Program is superseded by the founding of the Kilachand Honors College. CAS begins creation of a new framework for Honors in the Major, which replaces the more limited Work for Distinction framework.
2011	Founding of the BU Center for the Study of Europe and the Center for Computational Neuroscience & Neural Technology (CompNet).
2011	The Earth System Forum brings together faculty from around BU to explore research and teaching and future potential in interdisciplinary Earth systems and environmental studies and sciences at BU.
2012	CAS Student Academic Life offices and the CAS Writing Program move to the new student services building at 100 Bay State Road.
2012	Founding of the Department of Earth & Environment and the MFA Program in Playwriting.
2013	Founding of the Middle East and North Africa Studies (MENA) Program.
2013	The Department of Psychology changes its name to the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences.
2014	Long-time Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is appointed professor of the practice in the Department of Political Science and, with Graham Wilson, becomes founding co-director of the BU Initiative on Cities. Menino dies later that year.
2015	CAS lists almost 80 majors. The new majors and those with names changed since 2005 are: Architectural Studies; Chinese Language & Literature; Cinema & Media Studies; European Studies; French & Linguistics; Italian & Linguistics; Japanese & Linguistics; Linguistics & Philosophy; Spanish & Linguistics; Marine Science; Mathematics & Mathematics Education; Middle East & North Africa Studies; Neuroscience.

Compiled by Virginia Sapiro, Daniel Plucinsky (CAS’13), and Rachel Klepper (CAS’13)