Category: Campus
Astronomy Major Offered
Astronomy is first offered as a major, leading to the creation of the Astronomy Department in 1966.
Six-Year Liberal Arts/Medical Degree Program Established
Boston University is the first university to establish a combined six-year liberal arts/medical degree program.
Law-Medicine Research Institute
Recognizing the widening scope of the medico-legal field, Boston University establishes the Law-Medicine Research Institute. A public service organization dedicated to defining health law and its role in public policy decisions and developing effective teaching modalities in health law at the graduate level, the institute is renamed the Center for Law & Health Sciences in 1970 to convey the field's expanding range. In 1977, the center's core faculty members move to Boston University Medical School to form the Health Law Section—later the Health Law Department—at the new School of Public Health. The department is renamed the Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights in 2003 and is the successor and current incarnation of the original Law-Medicine Institute.
Boston University Fights Cancer with Groundbreaking New Center
The Cancer Research Center, an innovative effort dedicated to research and discovery. The center's research activities are organized into four programs: three are laboratory-based (Tumor Immunology/Lymphoid Malignancy Research, Cell Cycle Control and Signaling Research, and Hormone-Responsive Cancers Research) and one is population-based (Population Science—Cancer Disparities). Investigators from across the board collaborate on these themes, allowing greater opportunity for interdisciplinary and translational research.
Robert Lowell Poetry Workshop
BU hosts a most remarkable poetry workshop when Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and George Starbuck gather for instruction by poet Robert Lowell, who began teaching at Boston University in 1954.
BU Women’s Guild Established
The Boston University Women’s Guild is established in 1956 by Dean of Women Elsbeth Melville “to unite the women of Boston University in fellowship and acquaint them with the purposes and activities of the University.” The guild sponsors events to bring BU female faculty and staff together and to raise money for the Guild Scholarship Fund, awarded to female graduate students over the age of thirty.
CFA Established
The School of Fine & Applied Arts, now the College of Fine Arts, opens; the College of Music is absorbed into the new school.
Braves Field Becomes Nickerson Field
The University purchases Braves Field, which will become the site of Nickerson Field, the Case Athletic Center, and the West Campus residences.
African Studies Center
The African Studies Center, a program making major contributions to our national capacity to acquire and disseminate knowledge about Africa and its affairs, opens at Boston University.
"Those of you who know the African Studies Center well are already aware that it is not a department or just a research center. It is a community that lives each day, actively welcomes newcomers each year, and nurtures a wider set of colleagues around the United States and across Africa. Our sense of ourselves is historical, but grounded in the everyday as well." — James McCann, Director Ad Interim
Acorn to Oak: The Danielsen Institute
The Danielsen Institute at Boston University opens in 1952 as a multidisciplinary mental health care clinic licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The Institute is also a training and service center accredited by the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, and offers internship training and continuing education accredited by the American Psychological Association. Albert Danielsen, whose generosity founded and sustains the Danielsen Institute, used the metaphor of an acorn growing into a giant oak to describe what he hoped the institute would become. It is a tree of deep and varied roots—the roots of Albert and Jessie Danielsen, the roots of leadership; the roots provided by Boston University. And from these strong roots grows a great tree that carries on the Danielsen mission of service and growth." — Carole R. Bohn, Executive Director
