State of the University, Fall 2024

Dear Members of the Boston University Community,

It gives me tremendous pleasure to update you on the state of the University and the progress we have made over the past year. But first, I would like to thank the University’s community members for your warm welcome. When I started as president on July 1, I embarked on a listening tour to begin to understand Boston University’s many strengths, hear your concerns, and seek your ideas for the future. I have met with faculty, students, and staff; visited many schools and colleges; spent time on our campuses; and toured many of the University’s support units. I have had the pleasure of meeting alumni, friends, and colleagues here in Boston and around the world. This University, and particularly its people, are remarkable. I look forward to continuing to learn from you and to collaborating to create an even better Boston University.

Faculty Awards & Promotions
Boston University’s scholars continue to excel. Over the past year, many of our faculty earned significant recognition in their fields. To name a few: Ecologist Lucy Hutyra was awarded a MacArthur “Genius Grant” for her efforts to mitigate extreme heat and other consequences of climate change. Sociologist Deborah Carr, Director of the Center for Innovation in Social Science, and political scientist Vivien Schmidt, founding director of BU’s Center for the Study of Europe, were both welcomed into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2024. College of Engineering Professor Vivek Goyal was named a Guggenheim Fellow for his work in computational imaging. Mohsan Saeed, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology, was selected as a recipient of the Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award, to study how mosquito-borne viruses are transmitted to humans. Mark Grinstaff was awarded a National Science Foundation Trailblazer Engineering Impact Award for his research in self-amplifying RNA, which could revolutionize vaccines. The Office of the Provost shared an impressive list of faculty promotions in June.

The Incoming Class of 2028
Much of my optimism is rooted in the students who come to Boston University. The first-year class we welcomed in September is one of the most academically accomplished and talented in our history, coming to Boston University from across the country and around the world. The class was selected from nearly 79,000 applicants, with only 11 percent receiving an offer of admission.

Boston University has always been open to all people who were prepared for our rigorous curriculum. To this end, our expanded need-based financial aid continues to have a positive impact on access and diversity. One in five members of the Class of 2028 is the first in their family to attend college, and the first-year class includes 754 Pell Grant recipients (30 percent of domestic students). I am pleased that students from underrepresented groups (including those identifying with two or more races) constitute 27 percent of the domestic portion of the first-year class. International students comprise 23 percent of the class.

This year, 6,716 graduate students, 2,455 of whom are international, entered Boston University in nearly 400 programs. Total graduate enrollment as of midsemester was 18,324.

We remain committed to diversity, even as we recognize the very real challenges posed by the recent Supreme Court decision limiting the use of race in college admissions. Much thought has gone into how to address this issue within the limits of the law. This year we will increase our investment in programs such as Questbridge and increase our yield activities.

Fundraising Successes & Alumni Engagement
During the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2024, we raised money from a broad base of alumni, parents, friends, and foundations. Our donors support priorities across the University, for financial aid, faculty research, athletics, and many other areas. Thanks to affordableBU, we continue to meet 100 percent of students’ demonstrated need.

We also received some very generous gifts at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2025. Rod Hochman (CAMED’79, CAS’79) and his wife, Nancy (Sargent’77,’83), pledged $10 million to fund a Clinical Skills & Simulation Center at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. Cynthia Cohen (MET’77) gifted $1 million to fund IDEA Con, an event hosted by Innovate@BU, designed to bring innovators from across New England together at Boston University. Elizabeth M. Williams (COM’85) shared a $1 million bequest intention to fund undergraduate scholarships at the College of Communication.

We are fortunate to have an alumni community that is deeply active, whether through philanthropy or donating their time. In September, nearly 3,000 Terriers from around the world returned to campus for Alumni Weekend, showcasing their Boston University pride at events including the Back to BU Beach Festival, BU Night at Fenway Park, and the Best of BU Alumni Awards. Notably, we welcomed back over 100 alumni from the Class of 1974, celebrating their status as Golden Terriers (alumni who graduated 50 years ago or more).

Boston University continues to expand its outreach to our growing global alumni and parent groups, hosting events in Delhi, Bangkok, Madrid, and Barcelona since the start of the 2024 academic year. In November, we hosted the Asia Alumni Forum in Shanghai as well as parent events and consultation dinners in Turkey, Canada, and Mexico.

Budget
Boston University’s financial health is strong. During Fiscal Year 2024, Boston University’s total net assets grew 5.4 percent, to $5.96 billion, and our endowment increased $387 million; it now exceeds $3.5 billion. Overall, we ended the year with $196 million in total reserves, of which $88 million was distributed back to the schools and colleges. In addition, over $50 million was earmarked for capital projects, including classroom and faculty lab renovations.

Looking ahead, we have ambitious plans that will require financial commitments and long-term recurring investments. Therefore, in August, the Budget & Planning Office, working with the Provost Academic Budget Office, launched a new forward-looking and University-wide strategic budgeting approach. Starting with the central administration, we will work with greater budgetary discipline, reassessing and realigning our resources and understanding patterns, gaps, and redundancies to better support and achieve operational excellence.

While the University continues to do well financially, we expect that year-end reserves will fall short of our approved operating margin for the first time since the pandemic, resulting in significantly less money for reinvestment. This year, we experienced rising costs due to factors such as the new Student Information System, the newly enacted employment contracts, the effects of inflation on salaries and benefits, and investments to recruit and retain top academic talent.

As part of my commitment to greater transparency about the budget process and related strategic decisions, moving forward, we will soon share more information about how we develop our annual budget and reinvest our reserves into programs and campus infrastructure, and we will provide a preview of where we stand thus far in the fiscal year.

Capital Projects
In October, the City of Boston approved the Charles River Campus Institutional Master Plan (IMP), enabling the University to advance three major projects on the Charles River Campus over the next few years:

  • Warren Towers, Boston’s largest undergraduate residential facility (housing over 1,800 students) will undergo significant upgrades, aligning with our Climate Action Plan by becoming fully electric. This project, which should take three years to complete, aims to enhance the student experience by restoring the building’s façade and windows, adding air conditioning, and fostering a more supportive living and learning environment.
  • In 2026, we will begin construction on a new Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, designed to exemplify the University’s commitment to academic excellence and global engagement while featuring state-of-the-art facilities.
  • The IMP also includes plans to renovate Mugar Memorial Library to support the evolving needs of our academic community and create an improved environment for research and learning. The financial plan for this project is in development.

Community Connections
Since its founding, Boston University has been committed to our city and to forging connections with partners around the world. In 2024, we proudly served as a hub for impactful events at the city, state, and international levels, hosting key conferences and summits that fostered collaboration, inspired community action, and showcased the University’s commitment to leadership and civic engagement. These are a few examples:

Medical Campus
On the Medical Campus, the University has launched searches for new deans for the School of Public Health and the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. It will be critically important for us to bring top talent to these roles, as we seek to improve the University’s growing reputation for transformational research, providing a strong medical education, and serving the greater Boston community.

To this end, we’ve begun working with the team at Boston Medical Center (BMC) to develop strategies for improving alignment between Boston University and BMC, and to identify opportunities for enhancing the impact of our partnership. I plan to share more about this work next semester.

Additional Searches
We also have begun important searches for a new dean of the College of Engineering, a Vice President and Associate Provost for Research, a Vice President and Associate Provost for Enrollment & Student Administration, and Senior Vice Presidents for Development & Alumni Relations and for External Affairs.

Employee Relations
This fall, the University agreed to contracts with the Boston University Graduate Workers Union, the Residence Life Union, and the Boston University Children’s Center Teachers Union, successfully bringing striking community members back to work. We are glad to be able to offer our students and workers in all three unions a competitive package. We appreciate their advocacy and contributions to our community.

PhD Education
The nature of PhD education at Boston University is undergoing rapid change. In December 2023, the 2022 Taskforce for the Future of PhD Education submitted their recommendations to the University. The committee recommended that the University think boldly about the future of doctoral education and the experience of students. In addition to addressing the issue of student well-being, they asked departments to consider the size of their doctoral programs, weighing factors such as selectivity in admissions, student success, job prospects and placements, standing, and reputation.

In addition, in the wake of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, all PhD students will now be guaranteed 12 months of funding for five years. This change means that graduate education must be restructured in fields, such as the humanities and social sciences, that previously had eight to nine months of funding. Given these many changes, after careful consideration, some deans have opted to pause graduate admissions in these fields for one year to consider the educational and financial implications of the many changes.

This decision was difficult and in no way reflects the University’s commitment to the humanities and social sciences. Indeed, one of the hallmarks of Boston University is that we are a true university with excellence in the arts, humanities, sciences, social sciences, and professions. It is essential that we remain strong in the humanities and social sciences, in particular. This current pause will help us recommit and reimagine our doctoral programs, enabling us to attract outstanding students and to support them throughout their education.

I am also glad to announce that Sean Mullen was named the new Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs. A member of the Boston University faculty since 2010, and most recently associate dean of the faculty of natural sciences at the College of Arts & Sciences, Sean will lead graduate education initiatives, especially those supporting new opportunities in interdisciplinary education. I am pleased to welcome Sean to this important role, and I want to thank outgoing Associate Provost Daniel Kleinman.

Student Information System Transition
The University continues to focus on challenges with the rollout of the new Student Information System (SIS). The rollout has caused significant stress for many students, faculty, and staff this fall. Many students were delayed in receiving vital financial aid; some had challenges being hired into Work-Study jobs; others could not register for classes in a timely manner. This road has been bumpy, and the University’s staff has been remarkable in their commitment to problem-solving and in their efforts to accommodate students. My gratitude goes to our students for their patience and to our many staff who have worked incredibly long hours over a period of many months.

On August 1, Boston University welcomed our new Vice President of Information Services & Technology and Chief Information Officer Chris Sedore, who joined us from Tufts University. Since taking over this role, Chris has dedicated his time to helping guide the University through the SIS transition and in the coming months will also oversee Enrollment and Student Administration. We are very pleased that he has joined us, and we look forward to putting these challenges behind us as we complete the needed remediation and enhancement for the new system.

Moving Forward Together
During my inauguration, I reminded our community that Boston University was founded to be an institution of consequence, distinct from other institutions of the day due to its rigor, openness, inclusiveness, and commitment to service. These traditions were there at our founding and can guide us into the future. We will start with the six initiatives that I announced at my inauguration, and we will work together to develop an ambitious vision to guide us in the coming years.

The first initiative is Living Our Values, launched in October. Professor Kimberly Howard is bringing together a steering committee of faculty and staff experts and student leaders to help the campus community identify and practice the core principles and beliefs that unite us, while serving to guide our decisions, behaviors, and actions in ways that foster inclusivity, integrity, and positive impact. Living Our Values will focus on discourse, free expression, learning, and treating one another with respect and regard at a time when the world faces division and polarization.

In November, we launched Boston University Arts, which will establish a University-wide vision for making the arts more prominent on our campuses, while ensuring that Boston University is a leader in and a destination for the arts. College of Fine Arts Dean Harvey Young will head a group of faculty, staff, students, and alumni to help inform our long-term strategy for the arts.

I will have more to share on four additional inaugural initiatives related to research and scholarly excellence, the student experience, external engagement, and international engagement.

Certainly, many questions lie ahead. For example: How do we steward our resources wisely to ensure the success of our ambitious vision for academic excellence? How will policies associated with the new administration in Washington affect higher education? How do we break down silos across our campuses in the most impactful ways? How do we address the rising cost of education and other barriers to access, so that all qualified individuals can take advantage of what Boston University has to offer? How do we ensure the free flow of thoughts and ideas within the academy?

The state of our University is strong because of our people and our community. From our humble origins as a small seminary in rural Vermont, Boston University has become a major urban research institution. Our traditions, mission, and values will enable us to transform ourselves into something even greater than we are today. I look forward to meeting you, partnering with you, and making Boston University even more eminent for the next generation.

Sincerely,

Melissa Gilliam
President

*12/4/24 This message was sent to faculty and staff.

View all posts