Category: Philanthropy
Dahod Family Alumni Center Opens in BU Castle
The center’s grand opening during Alumni Weekend showcases the facilities and gathering places for alumni, along with new Alumni Association offices. With a newly renovated pub, now called Fuller’s BU Pub, the iconic Castle provides a draw for alums to come home to BU. More than 800 donors supported the enhancement, including BU Trustee Shamim Dahod’s (CGS’76, CAS’78, MED’87) $2 million gift, along with other remarkably generous contributions.
BU Awards Merit Scholarships to BPS Grads
For Thomas M. Menino and Community Service Award Scholars, BU grants four-year support to Boston public high school graduates matriculating at the University, covering the full cost of tuition without loans. More than a third of incoming Menino and Community Service scholars are the first in their families to attend college, and almost half of those are first-generation Americans.
New Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre Opens
BU officially opens a new 75,000-square-foot theater complex, which houses the 250-seat Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre and the CFA Production Center. The new building is made possible with a $10 million gift from BU trustee Steve Zide (LAW’86), with the theater named to honor of his wife’s parents, Joan and Edgar Booth.
Trustee Rajen Kilachand Makes Historic Gift
Alumnus and Trustee Rajen Kilachand (Questrom’74, Hon.’14) becomes the largest donor in Boston University history with a $115M gift to support research. Divided into two parts, the first designates $15M to the new Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering. The second part creates a $100M endowment called the Rajen Kilachand Fund for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering, which will promote, in perpetuity, groundbreaking research at the intersection of the life sciences and engineering across the University.
New Kilachand Center Links Key Research Disciplines
Boston University officially opens the $150M Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering, a 170,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art research facility that brings together life scientists, engineers, and physicians from the Medical Campus and Charles River Campus and promises to speed life-changing developments in the fields of human health, environment, and energy.
$10M Gift Names New CFA Theater
Global financier and BU Trustee Steve Zide (LAW'86) donates $10M to name a new BU theater, which is part of a 75,000-square-foot artistic complex under construction on the Charles River Campus. The gift is a tribute to his theater-loving wife, Janet Zide, and will be named after his in-laws, Joan and Edgar Booth, who brought the joy of stage performance into his family's life.
Trustee’s Gift Ignites Student Entrepreneurship
BU Spark!, a new incubator for technology-driven student entrepreneurship, comes to life thanks to a $1M gift from the Mullen Family Foundation. Based at the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering, BU Spark! will offer programs and resources to help students pursue next-stage development of projects.
$2M Gift Names the Dahod Family Alumni Center
BU Trustee Shamim Dahod (CGS’76, CAS’78, MED’87) and her husband, Ashraf Dahod, donated $2M toward a new alumni center. The Dahod Family Alumni Center will be housed on the second and third floors of the BU Castle, along with the Alumni Relations office. The gift bolsters a $9M top-to-bottom restoration project of The Castle, preserving its distinctive architecture and décor.
Shipley Foundation Gives $10.5M to Redirect Fight against Prostate Cancer
Richard Shipley, a BU trustee, technology investor, and former CEO, gives the School of Medicine $10.5 million to create a prostate cancer research center on the Medical Campus, along with a website devoted to treatment options. The Shipley Prostate Cancer Research Center will focus on personalized medicine, seeking genomic approaches to determine which cancers are aggressive and need to be removed or radiated and which are not, eliminating unnecessary treatment with devastating side effects.
Board of Trustees Elects Kenneth Feld Its New Chair
Kenneth Feld (Questrom’70), who chairs the $1.5 billion Campaign for Boston University and is one of the University’s most generous benefactors, is elected by the Board on December 10, 2015, and will officially begin his term in September. Feld succeeds Robert A. Knox (CAS’74, Questrom’75), who has served as Board chair since 2008.
