A Visit from President Gilliam

By David Berndt, SRFS Board Member

The retirees and guests who attended the Retiree Society’s Annual Luncheon on Wednesday, May 21 had a very special treat: a visit from our new President, Dr. Melissa Gilliam. Designed to celebrate her inauguration as the 11th President of Boston University in September 2024, the occasion marked the winding down of her first academic year at Boston University and one of the last steps in a year-long tour she has taken to meet with various groups of the Boston University community and hear their concerns and ideas.

After greeting some individual retirees before the Luncheon proper and hearing a brief welcome from Society President Jo-Anne Richard, President Gilliam took the microphone to address everyone gathered in the Trustee Ballroom that day. Framed as an update on her first year at BU, she told retirees about the faculty, student, staff, alumni, and other groups she has met, and her expanding sense of the institution she has come to lead.

Clearly, she has fully embraced the challenge of getting to know such a large, complex, and dynamic institution. Eager to learn about its history and traditions, she has also brought fresh eyes to current strengths and identified new possibilities for building upon the University’s research and teaching capabilities in the years ahead. She expressed her pride in the recent accomplishments of BU faculty and students, outlined some of the initiatives she has announced, and gave us a sense of the pathways she is envisioning to the University’s global future.

Those of us who have been around Boston University for decades could see that President Gilliam already has a good feel for who we are and what the University has strived to become throughout its history. We also got an inkling of what the search committee saw in her that qualified her to lead it going forward.

If you missed the Luncheon and would like to learn more about President Gilliam’s background and activities, take a look at the website of the Office of the President and follow the trails provided.

The Society is grateful that she was able to join us at our Annual Luncheon and look forward to working with her in the years ahead as she and Boston University face all the challenges ahead for American higher education.

When the President left for a busy day, the group turned its attention a brief business meeting and then to lunch and pleasant conversation with other retirees and guests. In keeping with the spirit of the day, a slideshow of Boston University’s history leading up to President Gilliam’s inauguration with glimpses of the Retiree Society’s recent Annual Luncheons cycled in the background. Hope to see you all at our 2026 Annual Luncheon next May.

A special shout out to the Society’s good friend, Sean Noel, from the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center. Recently named Boston University’s first official University Archivist, Sean dug into the University’s Archives for the photos and took the lead in organizing the slideshow for this memorable day.