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
First Black Dean Named
Howard Thurman is named Dean of Marsh Chapel, becoming the first black dean in a predominantly white University.
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
CGS (Formerly CBS) Established
The Junior College, a program based on team-teaching that had formerly been a part of the College of General Education, is established. This school is renamed the College of Basic Studies in 1960 and the College of General Studies in 1992.
Harold C. Case, Fifth President
from 1951–1967
A Kansas native, Harold Case pursued graduate study at Harvard University, Garrett Biblical Institute, Northwestern University, and Boston University School of Theology. He was a successful minister at several large Methodist churches across the nation before assuming the presidency of Boston University in 1951. Case continued the postwar expansion of the University, building new dormitories and establishing the School of Fine and Applied Arts (now the College of Fine Arts), the College of Engineering, and Metropolitan College. In 1953, he created the African Studies Program and the same year invited the distinguished African American theologian Howard Thurman to be dean of Marsh Chapel.
WBUR-FM
WBUR-FM goes on the air at 4:00 p.m. on March 1, 1950, as a 400-watt non-commercial educational FM station licensed to Boston University. By 1971, WBUR had enough full-time employees to qualify for status as a public radio station and applied to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for certification. In 1984, the station won three Associated Press (AP) Awards for news coverage. In May 1987, WBUR won the 1986 George Foster Peabody Award—the most prestigious national award for broadcasters—for Liberation Remembered, a four- part series on the Holocaust. Since then, WBUR has won the Peabody two more times, including an award for Car Talk in 1993.
ENG Established
The transfer of the New England Aircraft School to the University leads to the establishment of the College of Industrial Technology, renamed the College of Engineering in 1963.
Isaac Asimov Becomes a University Instructor
Isaac Asimov becomes a first-year instructor of biochemistry at the School of Medicine. Asimov, the scientist and author, was writing pulp science fiction stories in his spare time at his Somerville home while doing cancer research at the School of Medicine.
