Category: Community
BU Trustees Approve Aggressive Climate Action Plan
The BU Board of Trustees approve a Climate Action Plan to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions across Boston-area campuses and fund broad infrastructure improvements in preparation for flooding or heat surges in the coming decades. The plan recommends new building efficiencies, changes to renewable energy sources, and ways to make climate change a bigger part of the University’s curriculum and research.
BU Announces First Associate Provost for Diversity & Inclusion
BU names award-winning poet Crystal Ann Williams to the newly created position of associate provost for diversity & inclusion. Charged with promoting diversity among the University’s ranks, Williams’ goals include helping Provost Jean Morrison develop practices and programs to further diversify BU’s faculty.
BU and Red Hat Forge $5M Partnership
Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open-source enterprise software, joins the University in a five-year partnership aimed at advancing research into emerging and translational technologies, such as cloud computing and big data platforms. The collaboration will involve researchers from both Red Hat and BU, and will provide opportunities for students, staff, and faculty to drive new ideas and new technologies. The plan includes support for two research labs, one at Red Hat’s new corporate space in Boston’s Seaport District and one on the Charles River Campus.
Thurman Center Turns Up Volume on Cultural, Racial Conversations
After meeting with numerous students, including leaders of groups representing communities of color and LGBTIQ students, President Brown establishes a task force to raise the profile of the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground and make it even more impactful when it comes to cultural and racial discussions. To kick off the initiative, a series of community listening sessions is launched.
University Commits $50 Million for CFA Renovations
The University is bringing the theater arts program back to Comm Ave after a 33-year residence at the Boston University Theatre on Huntington Avenue. To that end, a new studio theater and a production facility will be built on the 808 block and a makeover of 855 will replace its forbidding street-level concrete façade with arched windows.
New Military Health Center Up and Running
In light of the still largely unmet health needs of US service members and the breadth of expertise at BU, the School of Medicine launches the Center for Military & Post Deployment Health, which will coordinate the University’s many and various military-focused research and service projects.
University Sells BU Theatre
In a move that concludes a mutually rewarding 33-year partnership with the highly regarded Huntington Theatre Company, the University decides to sell the 890-seat theater on Huntington Avenue and move College of Fine Arts production, design, and black box facilities to the Charles River Campus.
Yawkey Foundations Gift Goes to Work
Over the summer, the Yawkey Nonprofit Internship Program provides stipends for 14 BU sophomores and juniors. The program, which pays a stipend of $1,500 for an internship during the academic year and $3,000 for a summer internship, is funded by the Yawkey Foundations, which pledged $10 million in September 2014.
New Initiative on Urban Life
Outgoing Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, whose leadership transformed Boston, joins the BU faculty as codirector of the Initiative on Cities (IoC), which will convene the best current and former leaders of cities to share with academics and scholars from around the world their practical knowledge of how urban areas drive growth. The IoC will be affiliated with BU’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and Graham Wilson, a College of Arts & Sciences professor and chair of political science, will codirect the IoC.
“Cities are the engines that drive regional growth,” says Menino. “Jobs, economic development, housing, and education all contribute to their success or failure, but it’s the leadership of those cities that makes the difference.”
Lu Lingzi Memorial Scholarship Honors Slain Student
Just days after the Boston Marathon bombing, BU Trustee Kenneth Feld (SMG’70), chair of the Campaign for BU, proposes establishing the Lu Lingzi Memorial Scholarship Fund. Thanks to support from more than 1,300 individuals across the globe, the scholarship fund named for Lu reaches its $1 million goal in record time.
“This tragedy reflected the best and the worst of humanity,” says Senior VP for Development & Alumni Relations Scott Nichols. “You see this horrific, senseless terrorist act and then you see the response from total strangers worldwide.”
The Lu Lingzi Memorial Scholarship Fund endows two scholarships for graduate students.
