Welcome Back to Campus from President Melissa Gilliam
August 28, 2024
Dear Members of the Boston University Community,
It is a pleasure to welcome new and continuing faculty, staff, and students to Boston University as we begin the fall semester. It is an honor to begin my tenure as the University’s eleventh president, and I am grateful for your warm welcome. My first two months as president have been full. I am meeting with people across our institution and learning what is important at this remarkable University. As I make my way to the various units on campus, I look forward to engaging with you and hearing your thoughts about successes and opportunities. Already, I can see that Boston University is a collaborative place, built on research and multidisciplinary study, and composed of people who care deeply about the world around them and each other.
It is also an exciting place with tremendous scope and scale. This summer, I toured the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering where researchers seek to understand speech, hearing, and memory, among other biological processes. Colleagues at the School of Public Health shared their research in environmental health, health equity, and global health. I visited the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, which features some of the best young amateur classical musicians from around the world. With the support of one another and caring faculty, staff, and alumni from across musical disciplines, these young people pushed themselves to perform at a level they could not have imagined before they arrived.
I am also learning about some of your concerns. You have mentioned operational challenges, deferred maintenance, and bureaucratic silos that prevent consistent quality and essential collaborations. Further, Boston University has not been immune to the challenges facing so many colleges and universities over the past year. It is clear we value free speech and academic freedom. We also want freedom from fear, bias, and harassment based on one’s identity, race, religion, country of origin, political perspective, or status within the University community.
Speech and its protection have been fundamental values of Boston University since our inception. Our inaugural president, William Fairfield Warren, once referred to speech “given, received, and meditated upon” as “the most distinctive endowment of our race,” and he explained how speech must consist of self-revelation in a spirit of friendly reciprocity to develop one’s own nature and that of others. Here, the purpose of speech is exchange, communication, and regard for the listener and the society that we share. These words hold each of us to high ideals as members of the BU community, and they offer us wisdom for this moment in history. In the coming days, my colleagues and I will share resources and plans for making the campus a safe and welcoming place for all of us. In the coming weeks, I will share thoughts and questions about BU’s future strategy, operations, and culture.
Thank you again for warmly welcoming me to Boston University. I wish you all the best for a productive, engaging, and fulfilling semester to come.
Sincerely,
Melissa Gilliam
President
*8/28/24 This message was sent to students, faculty, and staff.