Category: Campus
Kilachand Honors College Students Get Their Own Home
The Kilachand Honors College receives another $10 million donation from Rajen Kilachand (Questrom’74), who donated $25 million last year and renamed the University Honors College for his parents, Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand. The newest gift will renovate Shelton Hall, now known as Kilachand Hall, as a dorm for Kilachand Honors students.
Redstone Gives $18M to School of Law
The Viacom executive chairman’s gift will kick-start the construction of an addition to LAW’s main tower at the center of the Charles River Campus. The addition will bear the media giant’s name. “I feel a very close relationship with Boston University,” says Redstone (Hon.’94).
BU to Establish Autism Center of Excellence
The National Institutes of Health announces an award of $10 million to establish an Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) at Boston University. The five-year grant will fund research devoted to the least probed aspects of the increasingly common disorder—autism spectrum disorder—which remains baffling for scientists. With the NIH funds, the BU center, which will marshal researchers from several fields to study autism and language, is the first federally designated center in the nation established to address the critical needs of this largely neglected end of the autism spectrum.
Center for Student Services Opens
The University invests roughly $70 million in new summer construction, renovations, and technology upgrades. Among the most anticipated projects on the Charles River Campus is the Center for Student Services. The building is now home to six academic advising programs, including the Educational Resource Center, the Center for Career Development, and several College of Arts & Sciences programs, as well as a new dining hall that can accommodate more than 1,000 students.
State-of-the-Art Med Dorm a Game-Changer
A nine-story building is now home to 208 medical students. The $40 million project was in the works for more than five years, since the MED dean’s advisory board decided to make it more afforable to attend BU’s medical program, which is among the 10 most expensive nationwide.
Kilachand Honors College Opens
Kilachand Honors College welcomes its first class of 75 entering freshmen. The new four-year, campuswide program replaces the University Professors Program. Students will study in cross-disciplinary classes and intensive seminars and tackle a senior research project during their undergraduate studies.
Green Light for Biosafety Lab
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs announces a draft decision allowing researchers to conduct lower-level biosafety research in BU’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) on the Medical Campus in Boston’s South End. The first research scheduled for the state-of-the-art facility are two projects involving nonpathogenic tuberculosis.
Global Urban Health Program Launched
The Center for Global Health & Development at BU launches a Global Urban Health program that will expand its research agenda addressing issues affecting global populations. The initiative, led by Professor Jonathon Simon, further establishes BU’s role as a major research university.
Rafik B. Hariri Institute
The Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering begins its mission of creating a community of scholars “who believe in the transformative potential of computational perspectives in research and education.” The institute was initiated in 2010 with Trustee Bahaa Hariri’s (SMG'90) pledge of $15 million for interdisciplinary collaboration.
Footbaths for BU’s Growing Muslim Population
Since 2007, the number of Middle Eastern students at the Center for English Language & Orientation Programs—many of them Muslim—has grown by 175 percent. Muslims are required to perform ablution—the washing of hands, face, and feet—before prayer, but until recently had no choice but to wash in bathroom sinks. The footbaths are a first for the University and considered cutting-edge compared to peer institutions nationwide.
