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:''This article is about Boston College. For the unaffiliated urban university, see Boston University .'' Boston College is a Private Research University located in Chestnut Hill , Massachusetts , in the New England region of the United States . Its historic Campus , one of the earliest examples of Collegiate Gothic architecture in North America, is set on a hilltop six miles (10 km) west of downtown Boston . Although chartered as a university by the Commonwealth Of Massachusetts in 1863, Boston College's name reflects its early history as a Liberal Arts College and Preparatory School in Boston's South End . It was the first institution of higher education established in the city, though it later outgrew its urban location and moved to pastoral Chestnut Hill on the city's western edge. Boston College is one of the oldest Jesuit universities in the United States and is home to one of the world's most prominent Catholic Theological faculties. ABOUT BOSTON COLLEGE viewed from Linden Lane]] Founded in part as a response to Discriminatory policies against Immigrants and Catholics at Harvard University in the 19th century, Boston College acquired the nickname " Jesuit Ivy " in a 1956 commencement address by then-US Senator John F. Kennedy . Its charter was among the first documents to stipulate that the institution "from its inception shall be open to youths of any faith," a policy since expanded to include those "of no religious faith at all." Boston College is called includes over 140,000 alumni in over 120 countries around the world. Admission to Boston College is among the most selective in the United States. For the class of 2010, BC received more than 26,000 applications for an Undergraduate class of approximately 2,100 - with over 12 applications for each position in the freshmen class. BC ranks fourth among private American universities in the number of applications it receives annually, though it is less than half the size of the three schools that rank above it. A study by Carnegie Communications in 2004 ranked BC 17th among national universities . The same study cited BC as the 8th "most popular" choice among US high school seniors . Boston College has not fared as well according to U.S. News And World Report , ranking 40th among national universities in 2005 , though it was ranked 16th among teaching universities by the same publication in 1995 . AHANA is a term coined (and trademarked) by BC students in 1979 to refer to students of African-American , Hispanic , Asian , or Native American descent. Today AHANA students comprise 23% of BC undergraduates {Link without Title} . International students make up an additional 2% of the student population. Boston College students have enjoyed tremendous success in winning prestigious post-graduate fellowships and awards, including recent Rhodes , Marshall , Mellon , Fulbright , Truman , Churchill , and Goldwater scholarships, among others. In 2004, 2 BC students won Rhodes Scholarships , and 11 won Fulbright Awards . In 2005, the number of Fulbrights rose to 14. At $1.4 billion, BC's endowment is among the Largest In American Higher Education and the largest of any Jesuit university in the world. Its annual operating budget is approximately $600 million. HISTORY Early history The history of Boston College is traced to the founding of the Society Of Jesus in 1534 and the early activity of Jesuits in New England in the 17th and 18th centuries. Jesuit founder, Ignatius Of Loyola , imagined a distinct mission that sought to engage intellectual inquiry, faith, and cultural contributions "in conversation with the city." His Society established colleges and universities in almost every part of the known world, and its members were among the great explorers of the Age Of Discovery . In 1825, Benedict Joseph Fenwick, SJ, a Jesuit from Maryland , became the second Bishop of Boston. He was the first to articulate a vision for a "College in the City of Boston" that would raise a new generation of leaders to serve both the civic and spiritual needs of his fledgling diocese. "A College in the City" In 1827, Fenwick opened a school in the basement of his cathedral and took to the personal instruction of the city's youth. His efforts to attract other Jesuits to the faculty were hampered both by Boston's distance from the center of Jesuit activity in Maryland and by suspicion on the part of the city's Protestant elite. Relations with Boston's civic leaders worsened such that, when a Jesuit faculty was finally secured in 1843, Fenwick decided to close the Boston school and instead opened one 45 miles west of the city in central Massachusetts where he felt the Jesuits could operate with greater autonomy. Meanwhile, the vision for a college in Boston was sustained by John McElroy, SJ, who saw an even greater need for such an institution in light of Boston's growing immigrant population. With the approval of his Jesuit superiors, McElroy went about raising funds and in 1857 purchased land for "The Boston College" on Harrison Street in Boston's South End. With little fanfare, the college's two buildings — a schoolhouse and a church — welcomed their first class of scholastics in 1859. Two years later, with as little fanfare, BC closed again. Its short-lived second incarnation was plagued by the outbreak of Civil War and disagreement within the Society over the college's governance and finances. BC's inability to obtain a charter from the Anti-Catholic Massachusetts legislature only compounded its troubles. On March 31 , 1863 , more than three decades after its initial inception, Boston College's charter was formally approved by the Commonwealth Of Massachusetts . In it, BC was granted the right to confer all university degrees, with the exception of the M.D. (a limitation that was later amended). Johannes Bapst , SJ, a Swiss Jesuit from French -speaking Fribourg , was selected as BC's first president and immediately reopened the original college buildings on Harrison Avenue. For most of the 19th century, BC offered a singular 7-year program corresponding to both high school and college. Its entering class in the fall of 1864 included 22 students, ranging in age from 11 to 16 years. The curriculum was based on the Jesuit '' Ratio Studiorum '', emphasizing Latin , Greek , Philosophy and Theology . Revolutionary for its time, BC's charter emphasized that "the profession of religion will not be a condition for admission to the College." "Oxford in America" Boston College's enrollment reached nearly 500 by the turn of the century. Expansion of the South End buildings onto James Street enabled increased separation between the high school and college divisions, though Boston College High School remained a constituent part of Boston College until 1927 when it was separately Incorporated . In 1907, newly-installed President Thomas I. Gasson, SJ , determined that BC's cramped, urban quarters in Boston's South End were inadequate and unsuited for significant expansion. Inspired by John Winthrop 's early vision of Boston as a " City Upon A Hill ," he re-imagined Boston College as world-renowned university and a beacon of Jesuit scholarship. Less than a year after taking office, he purchased Amos Adams Lawrence 's farm on Chestnut Hill , six miles west of the city. He organized an international competition for the design of a Campus master plan and set about raising funds for the construction of the "new" university. Proposals were solicited from distinguished architects, and Charles Donagh Maginnis ' ambitious proposal for twenty buildings in English Collegiate Gothic style, called "Oxford in America," was selected. By 1913, construction costs had surpassed available funds, and as a result Gasson Hall , "New BC's" main building, stood alone on Chestnut Hill for its first three years. Buildings of the former Lawrence farm, including a barn and gatehouse, were temporarily adapted for college use while a massive fundraising effort was underway. While Maginnis' ambitious plans were never fully realized, BC's first "capital campaign" — which included a large replica of Gasson Hall's clock tower set up on Boston Common to measure the fundraising progress — ensured that President Gasson's vision survived. By the 1920s BC began to fill out the dimensions of its university charter, establishing the Graduate School Of Arts & Sciences , the Boston College Law School and the Woods College Of Advancing Studies , followed successively by the Graduate School Of Social Work , the Carroll School Of Management , the Connell School Of Nursing and the Lynch School Of Education . In 1926, Boston College conferred its first degrees on women (though it did not become fully coeducational until 1970). With the rising prominence of its graduates, this was also the period in which Boston College and its powerful Alumni Association began to establish themselves among the city's leading institutions. At the city, state and federal levels, BC graduates would come to dominate Massachusetts politics for much of the 20th century. Cultural changes in American society and in the church following the and the bombings in Cambodia , culminated in student strikes, including the occupation of Gasson Hall for 23 days in April 1970. The Monan era By the time J. Donald Monan, SJ assumed the presidency on September 5 , 1972 , BC was approximately $30 million in debt, its endowment totaled just under $6 million, and faculty and staff salaries had been frozen during the previous year. Rumors about the university's future were rampant, including speculation that BC would be acquired by Harvard University. Monan's first order of business was to reconfigure the Boston College Board of Trustees. By separating it from the Society Of Jesus , Monan was able to bring in the talents of lay alumni and business leaders who helped turn around the university's fortunes. In 1974, Boston College acquired Newton College of the Sacred Heart, a 40 acre (162,000 m&2) campus 1.5 miles (2 km) away that enabled it to expand the law school and provide more housing for a student population that was increasingly residential and geographically diverse. No less than the university's rescue is credited to Monan who set into motion the university's upward trajectory in finances, reputation and global scope. In 1996, Monan's 24 year presidency, the longest in the university's history, came to an end when he was named University Chancellor and succeeded by President William P. Leahy, SJ. Recent history Since assuming the Boston College presidency, Leahy's tenure has been marked with an acceleration of the growth and development initiated by his predecessor. BC's Endowment has grown to $1.4 billion, it has expanded by almost 150 acres (600,000 m&2), and undergraduate applications have surpassed 26,000. At the same time, BC students, faculty and athletic teams have seen unprecedented success — winning record numbers of Fulbrights , Rhodes and other academic awards; setting new marks for research grants; and winning conference and national titles. In 2002, Leahy initiated the Church In The 21st Century program to examine issues facing the Catholic Church in light of the Clergy Sexual Abuse Scandal . His effort brought BC world-wide praise and recognition for "leading the way on Church reform" . In 2004, he announced plans to merge with the Weston Jesuit School Of Theology and advance BC as the world's foremost Jesuit university. The announcement was followed by an article in the '' New York Times '' claiming "such a merger would further Boston College's quest to become the nation's Catholic intellectual powerhouse" and that, once approved by the Vatican and Jesuit authorities in Rome , BC "would become ''the'' center for the study of Roman Catholic theology in the United States." On February 16 , 2006 , the merger was authorized by the Jesuit Conference. {Link without Title} During the 2004-2005 academic year, the Boston College administration found itself in the midst of a controversy surrounding the exclusion of Sexual Orientation in the university's notice of non-discrimination. Students and faculty in support of its inclusion cited Jesuit principles of justice and noted that other Jesuit institutions in the state, including the Weston Jesuit School of Theology with which BC had proposed a merger, did include sexual orientation in their notices of non-discrimination. A student referendum showing 84% support, a list of nearly 200 supporting faculty and Jesuits published in ''The Heights'' and a campus rally that drew over 1,000 culminated in an agreement for a revised notice of non-discrimination in April 2005. THE CAMPUS Landscape & architecture Set on a hilltop overlooking the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and the distant Boston skyline ( see live webcam ), Boston College's 175 acre (700,000 m&2) Chestnut Hill campus includes over 120 buildings in addition to athletic fields, rolling hills, wooded areas, three formal gardens, an orchard, and over 100 species of trees. The campus creates an almost rural setting, only 6 miles west of downtown Boston. A Boston College (MBTA Station) "T"-station, located at St Ignatius Gate, is the western terminus of the MBTA Green Line's B-branch (also known as the "Boston College" line) and provides Rapid Transit to the City Center . Travel time is approximately 30-45 minutes. Travel time to Boston can be reduced by taking a shuttle bus to the "Reservoir" station and riding the faster D line into the city. Due largely to its location and architecture, the Boston College campus is known affectionately as the "Heights," the "Crowned Hilltop" and "Oxford in America." This last moniker was the title of the original campus master plan and was confirmed by a visiting British journalist in 1915 who famously wrote, "Even in embryo, it is Oxford and Cambridge without their grime." "The Crowned Hilltop" Designed by Charles Donagh Maginnis and his firm, Maginnis & Walsh , in 1908, the Boston College campus is a seminal example of Collegiate Gothic architecture. Publication of its design in 1909 — and praise from influential American Gothicist Ralph Adams Cram — helped establish Collegiate Gothic as the prevailing architectural style on American university campuses for much of the 20th Century. Gasson Hall , BC's signature building, is credited for the Typology of dominant Gothic towers in subsequent campus designs, including those at the Princeton University Graduate School (Cleveland Tower, 1913 to 1917), at Yale University (Harkness Tower, 1917-1921), and at Duke University (Chapel Tower, 1930-1935). Combining Gothic Revival architecture with principles of Beaux-Arts planning, Maginnis proposed a vast complex of academic buildings set in a Cruciform plan. The design suggested an enormous outdoor Cathedral , with a long entry drive at the " Nave ," the main Quadrangle at the " Apse " and secondary quadrangles at the " Transepts ." At the " Crossing ," Maginnis placed the university's main building, which he called "Recitation Hall." Using stone quarried on the site, the building was constructed at the highest point on Chestnut Hill, commanding a view of the surrounding landscape and the city to the east. Dominated by a soaring 200-foot bell tower, Recitation Hall was known simply as the "Tower Building" when it finally opened in 1913. Maginnis' design broke from the traditional Oxbridge models that had inspired it — and that had till then characterized Gothic architecture on American campuses. In its unprecedented scale, Gasson Tower was conceived not as the Belfry of a singular building, but as the crowning Campanile of Maginnis' new " City Upon A Hill ." |