Category: Philanthropy
First Knox Professorship
The Robert and Jeanne Knox Foundation gives BU $2.5 million to create a professorship. School of Public Health Professor Jonathon Simon is named the inaugural Robert A. Knox Professor. Simon, who leads BU’s Center for Global Health & Development (CGHD), has spent a quarter-century battling childhood illnesses and death in the developing world. The focus on urban health, Knox says, is appropriate for big-city BU, “which in some ways has in its own DNA the problems of living in an urban environment.”
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.
$25 Million Gift Largest in BU History
Rajen Kilachand (Questrom’74), a Dubai-based global entrepreneur, pledged $25 million to support the Honors College, whose full name will become the Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Honors College in memory of his parents.
“His magnificent gift will create an endowment for the Kilachand Honors College that will increase the quality of this innovative program and the range of opportunities it offers for all future generations of Boston University students. Equally as important as his gift, which is the largest in the history of the University, is his insightful understanding of the enduring importance of undergraduate education, both to him and to the University.” — Robert A. Brown
Leventhals Pledge $10M
Alan M. and Sherry M. Leventhal pledge $10 million to BU, a contribution intended to motivate substantial parallel gifts for student financial aid and professorships.
“Their timely gift, at a critical phase in the University’s history, will bolster our promise to raise the necessary funds to ensure access for qualified students and to enhance our world-class faculty.” — Robert Brown
Endowment Reaches $1 Billion Mark
The University’s endowment reaches the $1 billion mark for the first time.
BU Opens New Buildings
Agganis Arena and the Fitness & Recreation Center open. The Florence & Chafetz Hillel House opens as the center for Jewish life on campus. The Life Science & Engineering Building opens. Graduate housing opens at 580 Commonwealth Avenue.
DeWolfe Boathouse
Construction begins on a new boathouse, which opens in the fall of 1999.
SMG Gets New Home
Construction begins on the Rafik B. Hariri Building of the School of Management; the building officially opens in October 1996.
Medeiros Scholarship Program
Boston University creates the Medeiros Scholarship Program, granting full-tuition awards to students from local parochial high schools.
Boston Scholars Program Initiated
The Boston Scholars Program is initiated and provides full-tuition scholarships and pre-college courses for local high school students.
