Redstone gift funds narrative professorship

Viacom and CBS chair Sumner Redstone (Hon. ’94) has donated $2.5 million to the College of Communication (COM) for the creation of a new professorship that will study and teach narrative storytelling. The new Sumner M. Redstone Professorship in Narrative Studies will be endowed in perpetuity through a gift from the Sumner M. Redstone Charitable Foundation.

“Storytelling in both entertainment and journalism has always been an integral focus of my business life through Viacom and CBS,” Redstone told BU Today. “I am so proud to help inspire others to the field by furthering the conversation and study of narrative storytelling at one of the country’s leading institutions.”

COM is no stranger to Redstone's generosity. He has also funded the Redstone Film Festival — an annual competition for students and recent graduates of COM's filmmaking and screenwriting programs — for 34 years.