Boston College (BC) is a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
Jesuit research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...
in
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Chestnut Hill is an affluent New England village located west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is located within one or more incorporated municipal entities. It is located partia ...
. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is
classified as an
R1 research university, it still uses the word "college" in its name to reflect its historical position as a small liberal arts college. Its
main campus is a historic district and features some of the earliest examples of
collegiate gothic architecture in
North America. In accordance with its
Jesuit heritage, the university offers a liberal arts curriculum with a distinct emphasis on formative education and service to others.
Boston College is ranked among the top universities in the United States and undergraduate admission is highly selective. The university offers
bachelor's degrees
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
,
master's degrees
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. , and
doctoral degrees
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
through its eight colleges and schools:
Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences,
Carroll School of Management,
Lynch School of Education and Human Development
The Lynch School of Education and Human Development (Lynch School) is the professional school of education at Boston College.
Founded in 1952, the Lynch school offers graduate and undergraduate programs in education, psychology, and human develo ...
,
Connell School of Nursing,
Graduate School of Social Work,
Boston College Law School
Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
With approximately 800 stud ...
,
Boston College School of Theology and Ministry,
Woods College of Advancing Studies.
Boston College athletic teams are the
Eagles
Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, jus ...
. Their colors are maroon and gold and their mascot is
Baldwin the Eagle
Baldwin the Eagle, an anthropomorphized bald eagle, is the mascot of the Boston College Eagles.
The nickname "Eagles" goes back to 1920 when Rev. Edward McLaughlin, unhappy at seeing a newspaper cartoon which represented Boston College as a cat af ...
. The Eagles compete in
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
Division I as members of the
Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports offered by the ACC. The men's and women's ice hockey teams compete in
Hockey East
The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference.
Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...
.
Boston College's men's ice hockey team has won five national championships.
Alumni and affiliates of the university include governors, ambassadors, members of Congress, scholars, writers, medical researchers, Hollywood actors, and professional athletes. Boston College has graduated 3
Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...
, 22 Truman, and more than 171
Fulbright scholars. Other notable alumni include a
U.S. Speaker of the House, a
U.S. Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
, and chief executives of
Fortune 500 companies.
History
Early history
In 1825,
Benedict Joseph Fenwick
Benedict Joseph Fenwick (September 3, 1782 – August 11, 1846) was an American Catholic prelate, Jesuit, and educator who served as the Bishop of Boston from 1825 until his death in 1846. In 1843, he founded the College of the Holy Cross in ...
,
S.J., a Jesuit from
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, became the second
bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
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. In 1827, Bishop Fenwick opened a school in the basement of his
cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...
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 leave the Boston school and instead opened the
College of the Holy Cross west of the city in
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...
where he felt the Jesuits could operate with greater autonomy. Meanwhile, the vision for a college in Boston was sustained by
John McElroy, S.J., who saw an even greater need for such an institution in light of Boston's growing Irish Catholic 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 Avenue in the Hudson neighborhood of
South End, Boston, Massachusetts
The South End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is bordered by Back Bay, Chinatown, and Roxbury. It is distinguished from other neighborhoods by its Victorian style houses and the many parks in and around the area. The South ...
. With little fanfare, the college's two buildings—a schoolhouse and a
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* C ...
—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
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
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 , more than three decades after its initial inception, Boston College's charter was formally approved by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. BC became the second
Jesuit institution of higher learning in
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
and the first located in the
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
area.
Johannes Bapst
John Bapst (born Johannes Bapst at La Roche, Fribourg, Switzerland, 17 December 1815; died at Mount Hope, Maryland, United States, 2 November 1887) was a Swiss Jesuit missionary and educator who became the first president of Boston College.
Li ...
, S.J., a Swiss Jesuit from French-speaking
Fribourg
, neighboring_municipalities= Düdingen, Givisiez, Granges-Paccot, Marly, Pierrafortscha, Sankt Ursen, Tafers, Villars-sur-Glâne
, twintowns = Rueil-Malmaison (France)
, website = www.ville-fribourg.ch
, Location of , Location of ()
() ...
, 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
The ''Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Iesu'' (''Method and System of the Studies of the Society of Jesus''), often abbreviated as ''Ratio Studiorum'' (Latin: ''Plan of Studies''), was a document that standardized the globally influen ...
'', emphasizing
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
,
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
,
philosophy, and
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
.
Move to Chestnut Hill
Boston College's enrollment reached nearly 500 by the turn of the 20th 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
, motto_translation = ''So they may know You.''
, address = 150 Morrissey Boulevard
, city = Boston
, state = Massachusetts
, zipcode = 02125
, country ...
remained a constituent part of Boston College until 1927, when it was separately
incorporated. In 1907, newly installed President
Thomas I. Gasson
Thomas Ignatius Gasson (September 23, 1859 – February 27, 1930) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit. Born in England, he emigrated to the United States at the age of 13, and was taken under the care of two Catholic women in Philadelph ...
, S.J., determined that BC's cramped, urban quarters in Boston's South End were inadequate and unsuited for significant expansion. Inspired by
John Winthrop
John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...
'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
Amos Adams Lawrence (July 31, 1814August 22, 1886) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and social activist. He was a key figure in the United States abolitionist movement in the years leading up to the Civil War and the growth of the E ...
's farm on
Chestnut Hill, six miles (10 km) west of downtown. 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. Construction began in 1909.
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's 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 Boston College Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, the
Boston College Law School
Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
With approximately 800 stud ...
, and the
Woods College of Advancing Studies, followed successively by the
Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, the
Carroll School of Management, the
Connell School of Nursing, and the
Lynch School of Education and Human Development
The Lynch School of Education and Human Development (Lynch School) is the professional school of education at Boston College.
Founded in 1952, the Lynch school offers graduate and undergraduate programs in education, psychology, and human develo ...
. In 1926, Boston College conferred its first degrees on women (though it did not become fully coeducational until 1970). On April 20, 1963, an address by President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
, the nation's first Catholic president who had received an honorary degree in 1956, was the highlight of a week-long centennial celebration. With the rising prominence of its graduates, Boston College and its powerful Alumni Association had established themselves among the city's leading institutions. At the city, state and federal levels, BC graduates dominated Massachusetts politics for much of the 20th century. However, cultural changes in American society and in the church following the
Second Vatican Council
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...
forced the university to question its purpose and mission. Meanwhile, poor financial management lead to deteriorating facilities and resources, and rising tuition costs. Student outrage, combined with growing protests over
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
and the
bombings in Cambodia, culminated in student strikes, including demonstrations at
Gasson Hall in April 1970.
File:Gasson Hall in Spring.jpg, Gasson Hall in spring
File:Gasson Hall in Summer.jpg, Gasson Hall in summer
File:Gasson Hall in Autumn.jpg, Gasson Hall in autumn
File:Gasson in Winter.jpg, Gasson Hall in winter
The Monan era
By the time
J. Donald Monan
J. Donald Monan, SJ (December 31, 1924 – March 18, 2017) was the chancellor of Boston College from 1996 to 2017 and its 24th president from 1972 to 1996—the longest such tenure in the university's history until it was surpassed by his successo ...
, S.J. began his 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
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. After Monan's appointment, the Boston College Board of Trustees was reconfigured. The board was broadened beyond its historic membership of members of the
Society of Jesus
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
, as lay alumni and business leaders were brought in, bringing new business models and an ability to raise funds. A similar restructuring had been accomplished first at the
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...
in 1967 by Fr.
Theodore Hesburgh
Theodore Martin Hesburgh, CSC (May 25, 1917 – February 26, 2015) was a native of Syracuse, New York, who became an ordained priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross and is best known for his service as the president of the University of No ...
,
CSC CSC, Csc or CSc may refer to:
Awards
* Conspicuous Service Cross (disambiguation)
** Conspicuous Service Cross (Australia)
** Conspicuous Service Cross (New York)
** Conspicuous Service Cross (United Kingdom)
Science and industry
* Cancer ...
, and Edmund Stephan, with many other Catholic colleges following suit in the ensuing years. In 1974,
Newton College of the Sacred Heart
Newton College of the Sacred Heart was a small women's liberal arts college in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. It opened in 1946 and merged with Boston College in June 1974.
The college was highly regarded during its time, and in 1971 founded the ...
was merged into BC, allowing expansion of Boston College to the Newton College campus. Boston College Law School moved to the campus, and its dormitories provided needed housing for a student population that was increasingly residential, for which the school had to lease off-campus apartments and even motel rooms. Monan was credited with turning around the school's financial position, leading to an improved reputation and increasing attention from around the world. In 1996, Monan's 24-year presidency came to an end when he was named
University Chancellor
A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system.
In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor is ...
and succeeded by President
William P. Leahy, S.J.
Recent history
![BC Campus Green](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/BC_Campus_Green.jpg)
Since assuming the Boston College presidency, Leahy's tenure has been marked with an acceleration of the growth and development initiated by his predecessor, as well as by what some critics see as abandonment of the college's initial mission to provide a college education for residents of Boston. It has expanded by almost , while dramatically reducing the greenery of its middle campus, although portions of the college's legendary "Dustbowl" were removed to accommodate additional expansion of its buildings. During this period, undergraduate applications have surpassed 31,000. At the same time, BC students, faculty and athletic teams have seen indicators of success—winning record numbers of
Fulbrights,
Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...
, 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
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in light of the
clergy sexual abuse scandal. His effort brought BC worldwide praise and recognition for "leading the way on Church reform." Recent plans to merge with the
Weston Jesuit School of Theology
The Boston College School of Theology and Ministry (STM) is a Jesuit school of graduate theology at Boston College. It is an ecclesiastical faculty of theology that trains men and women, both lay and religious, for scholarship and service, espe ...
were followed by an article in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' 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
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
and Jesuit authorities in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, 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.
![Boston College Campus Green](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Boston_College_Campus_Green.jpg)
In 2003, after years of student-led discussions and efforts, and administrators' repeated rejection of pleas from students, the school approved a Gay-Straight Alliance, the first university-funded gay support group on campus. In 2004, between 1,000 and 1,200 students rallied behind a student-led campaign to expand the school's non-discrimination statement to include equal protection for gays and lesbians. Earlier that year 84% of the student body voted in favor of a student referendum calling for a change in policy. After several months of discussion the university changed its statement of nondiscrimination to make it more welcoming to gay students in May 2005, but stopped short of prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
![Stokes Hall Amphitheater](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Stokes_Hall_Amphitheater.jpg)
On December 5, 2007, Boston College announced a master plan, a $1.6 billion, 10-year plan to revamp the campus and hire new faculty. The plan includes over $700 million for new buildings and renovations of the campus, including construction of four new academic buildings, a sharp reduction in the size of the legendary "dustbowl" campus green, a recreation center to replace the Flynn Recreation Complex, a university center to replace McElroy Commons (which is slated for destruction), and the creation of 610 beds for student housing, as well as many other constructions and renovations. The plan has been criticized by Boston city officials. On February 21, 2008,
Boston Mayor
The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a mayor to a four-y ...
Thomas M. Menino warned the school to construct new dormitory building on its main campus, rather than on property acquired from the
Archdiocese of Boston. The school was long an institution that targeted commuter students from the Boston area, however in the school's pursuit of a national legacy, that function has been forgotten as the number of commuter students enrolled dropped from well over 50% to a mere three students, according to statistics published by the alumni magazine.
On June 10, 2009, Mayor Menino and Boston's zoning commission approved the Boston College Master Plan, signaling an end to the long approval process, while allowing the school to enter design and planning phases.
On October 18, 2017, hundreds of students walked out of class in a protest against
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
and to demand the college officials pay more attention to the school's racial climate. The walk out was sparked by the defacing of two
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police br ...
posters and an offensive photo was circulated on social media sites. On December 8, 2018, walls, furniture, and a bathroom in the Welch Hall were vandalized with racist, anti-black graffiti.
Also, over the previous months, pro-refugee and Black Lives Matter signs were repeatedly removed around campus.
Campus
Chestnut Hill main campus
Boston College's main campus in Chestnut Hill, west of downtown Boston, is and includes over 120 buildings set on a hilltop overlooking the
Chestnut Hill Reservoir
Chestnut Hill Reservoir is a reservoir created in 1870 on existing marshes and meadowland to supplement the city of Boston's water needs, located in its namesake neighborhood of Chestnut Hill. A 1.56 mile jogging loop abuts the reservoir. Chestnu ...
. A "
Boston College" streetcar station on Boston's
MBTA public transit system, is located at St. Ignatius Gate; it is the western terminus of the
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
(MBTA)
Green Line's
B branch (also known as the "Boston College" line) and connects the school to Boston's
city center
A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...
and to other destinations in the city. Due largely to its location and presence of buildings featuring gothic towers reaching into the sky, the Boston College campus is known generally as the "Heights" and to some as the "Crowned Hilltop".
The
main campus is also listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
.
[ Reference#: 90000109]
![BCburnslawnsunset](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/BCburnslawnsunset.jpg)
Designed by
Charles Donagh Maginnis
Charles Donagh Maginnis (January 7, 1867 – February 15, 1955) was an Irish-American architect. He emigrated to Boston at age 18, trained as an architect and went on to form the firm Maginnis & Walsh, designing ecclesiastical and campus buildin ...
and his firm
Maginnis & Walsh
Maginnis & Walsh was an architecture firm started by Charles Donagh Maginnis and Timothy Walsh in 1905. It was known for its innovative design of churches in Boston in the first half of the twentieth century.
Partners
Maginnis was born January ...
in 1908, the Boston College campus is a seminal example of
Collegiate Gothic architecture. Combining
Gothic Revival architecture with principles of
Beaux-Arts planning, Maginnis proposed a vast complex of academic buildings set in a
cruciform
Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design.
Cruciform architectural plan
Christian churches are commonly describe ...
plan. Maginnis's design broke from the traditional
Oxbridge models that had inspired it—and that had until 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". Although Maginnis' ambitious Gothic project never saw full completion, its central portion was built according to plan and forms the core of what is now BC's iconic middle campus. Among these, the
Bapst Library
The Bapst Library is a Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate studen ...
has been called the "finest example of Collegiate Gothic architecture in America" and
Devlin Hall won the
Harleston Parker Medal
The Harleston Parker Medal was established in 1921 by J. Harleston Parker to recognize “such architects as shall have, in the opinion of the Boston Society of Architects
One of the oldest and largest chapters of the AIA, the Boston Society of ...
for "most beautiful building in Boston". The 1895
Louis K. Liggett
Louis Kroh Liggett (April 4, 1875 – June 5, 1946) was an American drug store magnate who founded L.K. Liggett Drug Company and then Rexall. He was later chairman of United Drug Company. He was a member of the Republican National Committe ...
Estate was acquired in 1941 and developed into a
Tudor-style upper campus, while an architecturally eclectic lower campus took shape on land acquired by filling in part of the
Chestnut Hill Reservoir
Chestnut Hill Reservoir is a reservoir created in 1870 on existing marshes and meadowland to supplement the city of Boston's water needs, located in its namesake neighborhood of Chestnut Hill. A 1.56 mile jogging loop abuts the reservoir. Chestnu ...
. Modernism had an enormous impact on development after the 1940s, though some of the modernist buildings at BC maintained non-modern rough stone facades in keeping with Maginnis's original designs.
![Boston College Quadrangle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Boston_College_Quadrangle.jpg)
Boston College's eight research libraries contain over two million printed volumes. Including manuscripts, journals, government documents and microform items, ranging from ancient papyrus scrolls to digital databases, the collections have some twelve million items. Together with the university's museums, they include original manuscripts and prints by
Galileo,
Ignatius of Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola, S.J. (born Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola; eu, Ignazio Loiolakoa; es, Ignacio de Loyola; la, Ignatius de Loyola; – 31 July 1556), venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, ...
, and
Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; Latin: ''Franciscus Xaverius''; Basque: ''Frantzisko Xabierkoa''; French: ''François Xavier''; Spanish: ''Francisco Javier''; Portuguese: ''Francisco Xavier''; 7 April 15063 December ...
as well as world-renowned collections in
Jesuitana,
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
literature, sixteenth-century
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
tapestries, ancient
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
pottery,
Caribbean folk art and literature,
Japanese prints
Woodblock printing in Japan (, ''mokuhanga'') is a technique best known for its use in the ''ukiyo-e'' artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. Widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (160 ...
,
U.S. government documents,
Congressional Archives, and paintings that span the history of art from
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
,
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
, and the
Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
. Opened in 1928,
Bapst Library
The Bapst Library is a Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate studen ...
was named for the first president of Boston College (
Johannes Bapst
John Bapst (born Johannes Bapst at La Roche, Fribourg, Switzerland, 17 December 1815; died at Mount Hope, Maryland, United States, 2 November 1887) was a Swiss Jesuit missionary and educator who became the first president of Boston College.
Li ...
, S.J., 1815 to 1887) and it was one of the few structures built according to Charles Donagh Maginnis' original "Oxford in America" master plan. Bapst served as the university's main library until 1984. A guide to the building's stained glass windows is available online. The Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections is home to more than 150,000 volumes, some 15 million manuscripts and other important works, including a world-renowned collection of Irish literature. A rare facsimile of the
Book of Kells is on public display in the library's Irish Room, and each day one page of the
illuminated manuscript is turned. It also houses the papers of prominent Boston College alumni. The library is named after the Honorable John. J. Burns (1901 to 1957), Massachusetts Superior Court Justice and a member of the Boston College Class of 1921.
![BCreservoir2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/BCreservoir2.jpg)
There are a variety of student housing options for students on campus. Those located on lower campus are Walsh, Rubenstein, Ignacio, 90 St. Thomas More Road, 66 Commonwealth Ave, Vanderslice, Gabelli, Voute, Stayer, and 'The Mods'. Roncalli, Welch, and Williams Halls are located on the middle campus on College Road. Freshman housing on Upper Campus includes Kostka, Gonzaga, Fitzpatrick, Medeiros, Cheverus, Claver, Loyola, Xavier, Fenwick, and Shaw House. Additional freshman housing is on the Newton Campus and includes Cushing, Duchesne (East and West), Hardey, and Keyes (North and South).
In the fall of 2010, Boston College began construction of Stokes Hall, a academic building on what was formerly known as the Dustbowl. Stokes Hall is the first academic building to be constructed on the Middle Campus since 2001. It was completed in December 2012, and opened for use in January 2013. In 2014, the university reconstructed St. Mary's Hall and renovated indoor pieces of Carney Hall. More Hall had been demolished to make way for a new residence hall in July 2014, slated to open sometime in 2016.
Middle Campus
![Burns Library Boston College](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Burns_Library_Boston_College.jpg)
* Carney Faculty Center
Located on middle campus, Carney Faculty Center no longer hosts classes and is largely office space. Rather, the building houses the offices of the Army ROTC program as well as the Student Program Offices. Often known as 'dark and dank', the building is distinct from the quadrangle area located across the campus green, known as the Dustbowl. Built in 1963, Carney has an unusual structure seeming to face away from the rest of the campus. Contrary to popular belief, the building was not built backwards but rather styled to allow more offices to have windows, according to BC Historian, Professor Thomas O'Connor. The Beacon Street side of the building contains a fountain in the middle of the courtyard; the fountain has been dry for decades as the result of the frequent use of powdered soap pranks by undergraduate students. The building additionally contains sets of unused lockers throughout the floors, which added to the fictitious speculation of the building being a former high school although they had been used by the commuter students who formed the vast majority of enrollment for many years. The existing 10-year university plan slates Carney Hall for reconstruction. Sections of the first floor have received new carpets, fresh coats of paint, and new ceiling tiles. The existing university 30–50-year plan schedules the reconstructed building to remain part of the quadrangle.
![Fulton Hall Atrium](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Fulton_Hall_Atrium.jpg)
* McElroy Commons
Located on the Southwest Corner of middle campus, McElroy is referred to by students as 'Mac', reflecting the common, but incorrect, pronunciation of the building's name. McElroy Commons holds a variety of offices and contains Carney's Dining Hall which serves the majority of students living on College Road and Upper Campus. Eagle's Nest, a lunch spot is located on the second floor of the building. The first floor of the building was updated in the summer of 2013.
* Stokes Hall
*
Fulton Hall
* McGuinn Hall
*
Devlin Hall
* Lyons Hall
*
Gasson Hall
* St. Mary's Hall
*
Bapst Library
The Bapst Library is a Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate studen ...
![Gargan Hall Bapst Library](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Gargan_Hall_Bapst_Library.jpg)
One of the most iconic images of Boston College lies within Gargan Hall of Bapst Library. Gargan Hall is a widely popular study location for students, open 24 hours on most days and known as the quietest place on campus. Gargan Hall regularly finds itself in the top 10 of the world's most beautiful libraries. While for years the hall contained a red rug, the hall now is carpeted in emerald green. This art library contains over 51,000 volumes, 150 serial titles, and access to hundreds of journal databases and electronic journals in Art, Architecture, Museum Studies and Photography. The library maintains print and electronic reserves for courses in the Fine Arts.
* O'Neill Library
* Cushing Hall
* Campion Hall
* Merkert Hall
* Higgins Hall
* Maloney Hall
Newton Campus
In addition to the main campus at Chestnut Hill, BC's Newton Campus, formerly Newton College of the Sacred Heart, is located to the west in the inner suburb of
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...
. The campus is home to the law school, Stuart Dining Hall, Trinity Chapel, and residential housing for roughly 40% of the freshman class. Freshman dormitories on Newton Campus include Hardey, Cushing, Duchesne, and Keyes. Two athletic fields and a recreation center are also located on the campus. A new building opened in 1996 housing the Law Library for the
Boston College Law School
Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
With approximately 800 stud ...
in Newton.
Brighton Campus
Between 2004 and 2007, Boston College acquired of land from the
Archdiocese of Boston.
This included the archdiocese's former headquarters, sold to the university in 2004 for $107,400,000.
The grounds are named after
Brighton, the Boston neighborhood in which it is located, as the municipal border sits on the street intersection where the two properties meet. It is adjacent to the main campus (on the opposite side of
Commonwealth Avenue), and includes the Italian Renaissance-style historic mansion of the
Cardinal's residence. The mansion now houses the
McMullen Museum of Art
McMullen Museum of Art is the university art museum of Boston College in Brighton, Massachusetts, near the main campus in Chestnut Hill.
History
The museum, which opened in Devlin Hall in 1993, was officially named The Charles S. and Isabella ...
, which has a prominent permanent collection and organizes exhibits from all periods and cultures of
art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
. Recent exhibits and acquisitions include works by
Edvard Munch,
Amedeo Modigliani,
Frank Stella
Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City.
Biography
Frank Stella was born in Ma ...
,
Françoise Gilot
Marie Françoise Gilot (born 26 November 1921) is a French painter, best known for her relationship with Pablo Picasso, with whom she had two children. Gilot was already launched as an accomplished artist, notably in watercolours and ceramics, b ...
,
John LaFarge
John La Farge (March 31, 1835 – November 14, 1910) was an American artist whose career spanned illustration, murals, interior design, painting, and popular books on his Asian travels and other art-related topics.
La Farge is best known for ...
, and
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...
. However, outshining by far all McMullen exhibitions, previous and subsequent, in terms of international media attention and attendance numbers was the 1999 exhibition, "Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image," featuring as its centerpiece the first North American appearance of the then-recently rediscovered masterpiece by Italian Baroque artist
Caravaggio, ''
The Taking of Christ
''The Taking of Christ'' ( it, Presa di Cristo nell'orto or Cattura di Cristo) is a painting, of the arrest of Jesus, by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Originally commissioned by the Roman nobleman Ciria ...
''. Admission to the museum is free and open to the general public. In 2008, the Weston Jesuit School of Theology merged with Boston College, and the new School of Theology and Ministry moved to Brighton. In addition to other offices and facilities, the Brighton campus is home to the
Harrington Athletics Village.
File:Simboli Hall.jpg, Simboli Hall, School of Theology and Ministry
File:McMullen Museum of Art.jpg, McMullen Museum of Art
Other properties in Chestnut Hill
In 2017, the university purchased the 24-acre Mishkan Tefila Synagogue property in Chestnut Hill. When purchased, the property was only used for administrative services and event parking. The former synagogue's 806-seat auditorium has since been opened as a new rehearsal and event venue for Boston College's Robsham Theater Arts Center. It is currently the largest venue for theater at the university. Additionally, the building houses a large, ballroom-style, multi-purpose room and a hexagon-shaped meeting room for performances, events, and conferences. An outdoor quad is also available to be used for events and the performing arts.
Approximately 17 wooded acres of the property, however, have been taken by the City of
Newton under the power of
eminent domain
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
in December 2019.
In 2020, Boston College bought
Pine Manor College
Pine Manor College (PMC) was a private college in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1911 and was historically a women's college until 2014. It currently serves fewer than 400 students, many of whom live on the 40-acre campus. Origin ...
, a small liberal arts college in Chestnut Hill with a high amount of first generation college students and inner city students that was undergoing financial struggles.
Other properties
The university owns and maintains a number of other properties around Massachusetts and the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
.
*
Connors Center: an retreat center in
Dover, Massachusetts
Dover is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,923 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. With a median income of more than $250,000, Dover is one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts.
Located abou ...
.
*
Weston Observatory: a seismology research observatory and field station in
Weston, Massachusetts
Weston is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, about 15 miles west of Boston. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, the population of Weston was 11,851.
Weston was incorporated in 1713, and protection of the town's historic resourc ...
.
* Boston College Ireland: home to the Centre for Irish Programmes: Dublin on
St. Stephen's Green in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
.
* Bellarmine House: an Jesuit Villa House in
Cohasset, Massachusetts
Cohasset is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 8,381.
History
Cohasset was inhabited for thousands of years by Native Americans prior to European colonization, from whom English c ...
, maintained by the Jesuits Community at BC and used for religious retreats.
Organization and administration
Its annual operating budget is approximately $667 million. The most recent and ongoing fundraising campaign, dubbed "Light the World", was announced on October 11, 2008. The seven-year campaign aims to raise $1.5 billion in honor of the 150th anniversary of the college. Funds raised will be used to support the strategic priorities of the university, including academic programs, financial aid, Jesuit Catholic identity, athletics, student programming, and capital construction projects.
Catholic and Jesuit
![St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/St._Ignatius_of_Loyola_Statue.jpg)
The 112 Jesuits living on the Boston College campus make up one of the largest Jesuit communities in the world and include members of the faculty and administration, graduate students, and visiting international scholars.
[Voosen, Paul.]
Disambiguation
." December 7, 2005, ''Boston College Magazine''. Retrieved December 26, 2006.
The
chapel
A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...
for the university is located in St. Mary's Hall, the Jesuit residential facility. Additional BC chapels are Trinity Chapel on the Newton Campus, St. Joseph's Chapel in the Basement of Gonzaga Hall on Upper Campus, Simboli Hall Chapel on the Brighton Campus, and St. Catherine of Sienna Chapel in Cushing Hall. Over 70 Catholic
Masses are celebrated on Campus each week during the Academic Year. The college also maintains close relations with the nearby Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The church is named after the founder of the Jesuit
order,
Ignatius of Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola, S.J. (born Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola; eu, Ignazio Loiolakoa; es, Ignacio de Loyola; la, Ignatius de Loyola; – 31 July 1556), venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, ...
. It is run independently of the
Archdiocese and is staffed by the Jesuits. Although not technically the university's church, Boston College provides the parish with Internet access, e-mail service, telephone and
voice mail
A voicemail system (also known as voice message or voice bank) is a computer-based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to ind ...
service, parking, and dormitory space for the
religious education program. Each year, several Boston College students teach in the religious education program. Jesuit priests from Boston College occasionally preside at the church's liturgies. St. Ignatius provides a spiritual home for many students during their time at Boston College and has also hosted alumni
wedding
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
s. The church building is also used by the college for some of their larger religious events.
Affiliated institutions
St. Columbkille Parish is a
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and
elementary school in
Brighton,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
that has an alliance with BC. Under the agreement, the parish school is to be governed by a board of members and a
board of trustees comprising representatives from
the Archdiocese of Boston, Boston College,
St. Columbkille Parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
and the
greater Boston
Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern a ...
community. The board of trustees will authorize an audit of the school's curriculum, faculty, finances, and facilities before creating a strategic plan to guide the school in the future.
Lynch School of Education and Human Development
The Lynch School of Education and Human Development (Lynch School) is the professional school of education at Boston College.
Founded in 1952, the Lynch school offers graduate and undergraduate programs in education, psychology, and human develo ...
faculty will work directly with the school's teachers on faculty and curriculum development, presenting new approaches to education and working to establish best practices in the classroom. The agreement, announced in March 2006 by University President
William P. Leahy, S.J., and Boston Cardinal
Sean O'Malley,
OFM Cap., is believed to represent the first such collaboration between a Catholic university and a
parochial school in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
.
Admissions
For the Class of 2025, Boston College received 39,875 applications, of which it admitted 18.9%. The
interquartile (middle 50%) of admitted students of the class of 2025 who submitted test scores under Boston College's test-optional policy possessed scores between 1460 and 1540 on the
SAT
The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...
and 33–35 on the
ACT. The accepted class includes students from 50
states, 3 U.S. territories, and 75 foreign countries.
Academics
Schools and colleges
![Boson College sign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Boson_College_sign.jpg)
As a research university, Boston College is made up of a total of eight constituent colleges and schools:
*
Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences
*
Carroll School of Management
*
Lynch School of Education and Human Development
The Lynch School of Education and Human Development (Lynch School) is the professional school of education at Boston College.
Founded in 1952, the Lynch school offers graduate and undergraduate programs in education, psychology, and human develo ...
*
Connell School of Nursing
*
Boston College School of Social Work
*
Boston College Law School
Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
With approximately 800 stud ...
*
Boston College School of Theology and Ministry
*
Woods College of Advancing Studies
Rankings
Boston College tied for 35th among national universities and tied for 468th among global universities in ''
U.S. News & World Report'' "America's Best Colleges 2021" rankings
and 41st in the ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' 2019 edition of "America's Top Colleges",
In 2016, the undergraduate school of business, the
Carroll School of Management, placed 3rd in an annual ranking of U.S. undergraduate business schools by ''
Bloomberg Businessweek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
''. A 2007
Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981. and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4,0 ...
survey of parents that asked "What 'dream college' would you most like to see your child attend were prospects of acceptance or cost not issues?" placed BC 6th. Boston College is
accredited
Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...
by the
New England Commission of Higher Education
The New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) is a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit membership organization that performs peer evaluation and accreditation of public and private universities and colleges in the United States and other ...
.
Gabelli Presidential Scholars Program
The Gabelli Presidential Scholars Program is a competitive undergraduate program offered to a subset of applicants to Boston College.
This program offers a four-year, full-tuition scholarship to Boston College. Students who accept an invitation to apply for the program are asked to spend a weekend at Boston College, where they complete several interviews and participate in a mock classroom seminar.
The Gabelli Presidential Scholars Program is very competitive; out of the Boston College applicants invited to apply to the GPSP program, approximately 18 are awarded the scholarship.
Since the entire early application pool is evaluated in determining whom to grant application invitations to, the overall admissions rate of the program is less than 1%.
The scholarship includes a number of funded enrichment opportunities such as several summer programs, among them a summer-long international study program for language proficiency.
Many Gabelli Presidential Scholars have been recognized for academic excellence through prestigious awards including Rhodes, Truman, and Churchill Scholarships along with numerous Fulbright grants.
Order of the Cross and Crown
The Order of the Cross and Crown, founded in 1939, is the College of Arts and Sciences honor society for seniors who have achieved an average of at least A−, as well as established records of unusual service and leadership on the campus. The selections committee, composed of the deans, faculty members, and administration, appoints specially distinguished members of the Order to be its officers as Chief Marshal and Marshals. Induction into the Cross and Crown Honor Society is one of the highest and most prestigious honors that BC students can receive.
Campbell Soup Company CEO,
Denise Morrison is an example of one prominent member.
Research
Scholarly publications
* ''Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review''
* ''
Boston College Law Review
The ''Boston College Law Review'' is an academic journal of legal scholarship and a student organization at Boston College Law School. It was established in 1959. Until 1977, it was known as the ''Boston College Industrial & Commercial Law Review'' ...
''
* ''C21 Resources'', a progressive journal of contemporary Catholic issues, published by BC's Church in the 21st Century Center.
* ''Dianoia: The Undergraduate Philosophy Journal of Boston College'', a journal featuring undergraduate work in philosophy from around the world.
* ''The Eagletarian'', published by The BC Economics Association.
* ''Guide to Jesuit Education''
* ''International & Comparative Law Review''
* ''Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment''
* ''Lumen et Vita: The Graduate Academic Journal of the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry'',
* ''New Arcadia Review''
* ''Religion and the Arts Journal''
* ''Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations'', the official journal of the
Council of Centers of Jewish-Christian Relations (CCJR) and is published by the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College and the Boston College Libraries.
* ''Teaching Exceptional Children / Teaching Exceptional Children Plus''
* ''Third World Law Journal''
* ''Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest''
Philosophy
Philosophy has long been an important part of the university's curriculum. In the seventies, Boston College's Philosophy Department distinguished itself from the majority of American Departments by promoting the study of
Continental European philosophy over and above
analytic philosophy. Under the direction of Department Chair Joseph Flanagan, SJ and following the example of
Fordham University, the department branched out from its traditional strengths in philosophy of religion, ancient/medieval philosophy, and
Thomism
Thomism is the philosophical and theological school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Aquinas' disputed questions ...
. It has since become a leading university in the United States for the study of
continental philosophy. As of 2021, Boston College ranks 39th in the world, and 13th in the United States, for philosophy according to the
QS World University Rankings
''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for the ...
.
The department has featured as permanent faculty a number of noted continental philosophers including Heidegger scholar
William J. Richardson, SJ as well as experts in phenomenology
Richard Cobb-Stevens and
Jacques Taminiaux
Jacques Taminiaux (; 29 May 1928 – 7 May 2019) was a Belgian philosopher and professor at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States.
Biography
Born in Seneffe, Taminiaux studied law and philosophy at the Catholic Univers ...
. The department today still has a large proportion of experts in continental philosophy including European philosophy and literature expert
Richard Kearney
Richard Kearney (; born 1954) is an Irish philosopher and public intellectual specializing in contemporary continental philosophy. He is the Charles Seelig Professor in Philosophy at Boston College and has taught at University College Dublin ...
, expert in phenomenology
John Sallis, expert in Christian philosophy and apologetics
Peter Kreeft
Peter John Kreeft (; born March 16, 1937) is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and The King's College. A convert to Roman Catholicism, he is the author of over eighty books on Christian philosophy, theology and apologetics. He also f ...
, and experts in social and political philosophy
David M. Rasmussen and James Bernauer, SJ. Since the seventies, the department has also had a number of notable visiting professors including
Hans-Georg Gadamer
Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; February 11, 1900 – March 13, 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 ''magnum opus'', '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''), on hermeneutics.
Life
Family ...
,
Jean-Luc Marion
Jean-Luc Marion (born 3 July 1946) is a French philosopher and Roman Catholic theologian. Marion is a former student of Jacques Derrida whose work is informed by patristic and mystical theology, phenomenology, and modern philosophy.Horner ...
, and
Bernard Lonergan
Bernard Joseph Francis Lonergan (17 December 1904 – 26 November 1984) was a Canadian Jesuit priest, philosopher, and theologian, regarded by many as one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century.
Lonergan's works include ''Insight: A ...
, SJ.
Student life
AHANA
AHANA is the term Boston College uses to refer to persons of
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
,
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...
,
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, and
Native American descent. The term was coined at Boston College in 1979 by two students, Alfred Feliciano and Valerie Lewis, who objected to the name "Office of Minority Programs" used by Boston College at the time. They cited the definition of the word
minority as "less than" and proposed, instead, to use the term AHANA which they felt celebrated social cultural differences. After receiving overwhelming approval from the university's board of
trustees
Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to t ...
, and UGBC president Dan Cotter, the Office of Minority Student Programs became the Office of AHANA Student Programs. The term, or one or its derivative forms, such as ALANA (where "
Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
" is substituted for "Hispanic"), has become common on a number of other American university campuses. Boston College, which has registered the term AHANA as a
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...
, has granted official permission for its use to over 50 institutions and organizations in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Many more use the term unofficially. Other institutions that use the AHANA acronym include
Suffolk University,
Cleveland State University,
Eastern Mennonite University
Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) is a private Mennonite university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The university also operates a satellite campus in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which primarily caters to working adults. EMU's bachelor-degree holde ...
,
Saint Martin's University
Saint Martin's University is a private Benedictine university in Lacey, Washington. It was founded in 1895 as an all-boys boarding school by monks of the Benedictine Order. Saint Martin's began offering college-level courses in 1900 and became a ...
,
Le Moyne College
Le Moyne College is a private Jesuit college in DeWitt, New York.http://www.ongov.net/planning/haz/documents/Section9.7-TownofDeWitt.pdf It was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1946 and named after Jesuit missionary Simon Le Moyne. At its fo ...
, and
Salem State University
Salem State University (Salem State or SSU) is a public university in Salem, Massachusetts. Established in 1854, it is the oldest and largest institute of higher education on the North Shore and is part of the state university system in Massa ...
. With some support on campus, there are still racist incidents on campus, such as Black Lives Matter posters being torn down and anti-black vandalism on dorm walls.
Student media
;Newspapers
* ''
The Heights'', the principal
student newspaper, published weekly; established in 1919
* ''The Gavel'', an independent progressive student magazine; launched on October 27, 2009. ''The Gavel'' publishes most articles online, but brought back its print edition in the Spring of 2018.
* ''The Torch'', an independent Catholic student newspaper that publishes stories covering Catholic news on campus and around the world as well as student faith reflections. It was established in 2013.
* ''The Rock'', an independent student online publication recognized by the university. Launched on September 26, 2011
* ''The New England Classic'', a satirical newspaper unrecognized by the university but regularly published and distributed on campus; launched in Fall 2007 and is independently funded.
* ''Colloquium Political Science Journal'', The political science journal of Boston College that is sponsored by the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Boston College.
;Broadcasting
* ''The BC'', a widely acclaimed parody of ''
The OC
''The O.C. '' is an American teen drama television series created by Josh Schwartz that originally aired on the Fox network in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 22, 2007, running a total of four seasons. "O.C." is an initiali ...
'' featuring students, Jesuits, and administrators
* Boston College Television (BCTV), a student-run cable
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...
formerly featuring a show known as ''Now You Know'', but now reports on student life, sports, entertainment, and other subjects
*
WZBC
WZBC (90.3 FM) is a radio station broadcasting an Alternative format. Licensed to Newton, Massachusetts, United States, the station serves Boston and its western suburbs. The station is currently owned by Boston College.
While the station is ru ...
, 90.3 FM, the student-run
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...
which provides independent and experimental music
;Other notable publications
* ''Sub Turri'', the Boston College
yearbook
A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often ...
, published since 1913
* ''
The Stylus of Boston College'', the undergraduate literary magazine, founded in 1882
* ''Elements Undergraduate Research Journal'', the premier undergraduate research journal of Boston College, published biannually
* ''Al-Noor: The Boston College Undergraduate Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Journal'', one of the only undergraduate Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Journals in the world.
* ''Kaleidoscope International Journal'', the international relations and global studies journal of Boston College
* ''Dianoia: The Undergraduate Philosophy Journal of Boston College''
;Ensembles
* BC bOp", the Boston College
jazz band
*
Boston College "Screaming Eagles" Marching Band
* Boston College Symphony Orchestra,
* Pep Band, the ensemble that performs at
Boston College hockey and basketball games
* University Wind Ensemble of Boston College
* University Symphonic Band
* University Chorale of Boston College
* Madrigal Singers of Boston College
Theater Performance
* The Dramatics Society
* Contemporary Theater
''Alma mater''
''Alma Mater'' was written by T.J. Hurley, who also wrote ''
For Boston "For Boston" is the traditional fight song of Boston College and Boston College High School. It was written and composed by T.J. Hurley, a member of the Boston College Class of 1885.
Lyrics
''For Boston, for Boston,''
''We sing our proud refrai ...
'' (the Boston College
Fight Song
A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...
) and was a member of the Class of 1885.
Athletics
![Conte Forum Boston College](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Conte_Forum_Boston_College.png)
Boston College teams are known as the Eagles. They compete as a member of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...
(NCAA)
Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) sub-level for football), primarily competing in the
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for all sports since the 2005–06 season. The Eagles formerly competed as a charter member of the
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...
from 1979–80 to 2004–05. Up to that point, Boston College was the only Big East member affiliated with the Catholic Church that played football in the conference. All the football-playing members of the Big East are now secular (usually public) institutions. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, fencing (non-ACC), football, golf, ice hockey (non-ACC), sailing (non-ACC), skiing (non-ACC), soccer, swimming, tennis, and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, fencing (non-ACC), field hockey, golf, ice hockey (non-ACC), lacrosse, rowing, sailing, skiing, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track & field and volleyball. The men's and women's ice hockey teams compete in
Hockey East
The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference.
Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...
; while the women's rowing team competes in the
Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges The Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC) is a college athletic conference of eighteen women's college rowing crew teams. The conference is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).
Members
:''See footnote''< ...
(EAWRC) as well as the ACC; and the co-ed skiing, fencing and sailing teams are non-ACC/NCAA. Boston College is one of only thirteen universities in the country offering NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly, I-A) football, Division I men's and women's basketball, and Division I hockey.
![Ice Hockey Conte Forum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Ice_Hockey_Conte_Forum.jpg)
The mascot for all Boston College athletic teams is the
Eagle
Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...
, generally referred to in the plural, i.e., "The Eagles". The character representing the mascot at football, hockey, and basketball games is an American bald eagle named
Baldwin, derived from the "bald" head of the American bald eagle and the word "win". The school colors are
maroon and
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
. The fight song, ''
For Boston "For Boston" is the traditional fight song of Boston College and Boston College High School. It was written and composed by T.J. Hurley, a member of the Boston College Class of 1885.
Lyrics
''For Boston, for Boston,''
''We sing our proud refrai ...
'', was composed by T.J. Hurley, class of 1885.
![Alumni Stadium Boston College](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Alumni_Stadium_Boston_College.jpg)
In hockey and baseball, Boston College participates in the annual
Beanpot
A beanpot is a deep, wide-bellied, short-necked vessel used to cook bean-based dishes. Beanpots are typically made of ceramic, though some are made of other materials, such as cast iron. The relatively narrow mouth of the beanpot minimizes evap ...
tournaments held at
TD Banknorth Garden
TD Garden is a multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after its sponsor, TD Bank, a subsidiary of the Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Ontario. It opened in 1995 as a replacement for the original Boston Garden and has been k ...
and
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home of the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and since 1953, its only Major League Bas ...
, respectively. Boston College competes in the Beanpot against the three other major sports colleges in Boston: the
Northeastern University Huskies
Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that mai ...
,
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
Crimson, and
Boston University Terriers
The Boston University Terriers are the ten men's and fourteen women's varsity athletic teams representing Boston University in NCAA Division I competition. Boston University's team nickname is the Terriers, and the official mascot is Rhett the ...
. BC has reached the championship game 31 times and has won the Beanpot 16 times, including the 2010, 2011 and 2012 championships. The less renowned baseball tournament, was first played in 1990 and out of seventeen baseball Beanpots, Boston College has won nine, last winning in 2008. The baseball team also plays an exhibition game against the
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...
at
jetBlue Park
JetBlue Park (also styled as jetBlue Park) is a baseball park in Fort Myers, Florida, part of the Fenway South training and development facility.
Opened in March 2012, it is primarily the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox, replacing e ...
after several years at
City Of Palms Park
City of Palms Park is a baseball stadium in Fort Myers, Florida. It served as the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB) from its opening in 1993 to 2011. It has hosted college baseball games for Florida South ...
both in
Ft. Myers,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
during
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
's
spring training. The men's hockey team won the
2008 NCAA Championship on April 12, 2008, with a 4–1 victory over the University of Notre Dame in
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
, the
2010 NCAA Championship with a 5–0 victory over Wisconsin on April 10, 2010, and in 2012 in the
2012 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament with a 4–1 victory over
Ferris State University
Ferris State University (FSU or Ferris) is a public university with its main campus in Big Rapids, Michigan. It was founded in 1884 and became a public institution in 1950. Ferris is the ninth-largest institutions of higher education by enrol ...
in Tampa.
Principal athletic facilities include
Alumni Stadium
Alumni Stadium is a football stadium located on the lower campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, approximately west of downtown Boston. It is the home of the Boston College Eagles. Its present seating capacity is 44,500. Offic ...
(capacity: 44,500),
Conte Forum
The Silvio O. Conte Forum, commonly known as Conte Forum, Kelley Rink (for ice hockey games), or simply Conte, is an 8,606-seat multi-purpose arena which opened in 1988 on the campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, near Boston, Massachusett ...
(8,606),
Kelley Rink
The Silvio O. Conte Forum, commonly known as Conte Forum, Kelley Rink (for ice hockey games), or simply Conte, is an 8,606-seat multi-purpose arena which opened in 1988 on the campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, near Boston, Massachuset ...
(7,884),
Eddie Pellagrini Diamond at John Shea Field
Eddie Pellagrini Diamond at John Shea Field was a baseball stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It was the home field of the Boston College Eagles baseball team from 1961 to 2017. The stadium held 1,000 people and was named after Commander J ...
(1,000), the Newton Soccer Complex (1,000), and the Flynn Recreation Complex. The
Yawkey Athletics Center
Yawkey Athletics Center is a facility located on the north end of Alumni Stadium
Alumni Stadium is a football stadium located on the lower campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, approximately west of downtown Boston. It is t ...
opened in the spring of 2005. BC students compete in 31 varsity sports
as well as a number of club and intramural teams. On March 18, 2002, Boston College's Athletics program was named to the College Sports Honor Roll as one of the nation's top 20 programs by ''
U.S. News & World Report''.
Boston College athletes are among the most academically successful in the nation, according to the NCAA's
Academic Progress Rate The Academic Progress Rate (APR) is a measure introduced by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the nonprofit association that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, ...
(APR). In 2006 Boston College received Public Recognition Awards with fourteen of its sports in the top 10% of the nation academically. The Eagles tied
Notre Dame for the highest total of any Division I-A university. Other schools having ten or more sports honored included
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
(12),
Stanford (11), and
Duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...
(11). Teams honored were football, men's fencing, men's outdoor track, men's skiing, women's rowing, women's cross country, women's fencing, women's field hockey, women's indoor track, women's outdoor track, women's skiing, women's swimming, women's soccer, women's tennis, and women's volleyball. Boston College's football program was one of only five Division I-A teams that were so honored. The other four were
Auburn, Navy, Stanford, and Duke.
Football
![Boston Eagles footb 1893](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Boston_Eagles_footb_1893.gif)
The Boston College Eagles have achieved repeated success in college football. On November 16, 1940, BC's
Frank Leahy
Francis William Leahy (August 27, 1908 – June 21, 1973) was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and professional sports executive. He served as the head football coach at Boston College from 1939 to 1940 and at ...
-coached championship team took a win from two-season undefeated Georgetown University in the final seconds, in a game that renowned sportswriter
Grantland Rice
Henry Grantland "Granny" Rice (November 1, 1880July 13, 1954) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio.
Early years
Rice wa ...
called the greatest ever played.
Two of Boston College's most famous football victories came in dramatic fashion, on the final play of the game. On November 23, 1984, before a national audience on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
,
Doug Flutie
Douglas Richard Flutie (born October 23, 1962) is an American former football quarterback whose professional career spanned 21 seasons. He played 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), eight seasons in the Canadian Football League (CF ...
threw a
Hail Mary
The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's ...
to Gerard Phelan for a 47–45 victory over the University of Miami at the
Orange Bowl
The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game ...
. The Eagles finished the
1984 season with a 10–2 record, defeating the University of Houston in the
Cotton Bowl. The team completed the season with a #5 rank in the AP poll. Flutie was awarded the
Heisman Trophy, the only Eagle to date so honored. On November 20, 1993, the Eagles beat undefeated archrival Notre Dame 41–39 on a 41-yard field goal by
David Gordon as time expired, preventing the Fighting Irish a berth in the national championship game.
In 2007, the Eagles reached the #2 rank in both the AP and Coaches' Poll as well as the
BCS rankings
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including ...
, led by
Matt Ryan. Ryan was awarded the 2007
Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award
The Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award is given annually in the United States to the nation's top upperclassmen quarterback in college football. Candidates are judged on accomplishments on the field as well as on their character, scholastic achievemen ...
, presented annually to the nation's most outstanding college senior quarterback. He was selected third in the
2008 NFL Draft by the
Atlanta Falcons, making him the highest-chosen BC player in
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...
history.
The Eagles annually wear red bandanna-themed uniforms in honor of fallen
September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
hero
Welles Crowther
Welles Remy Crowther (May 17, 1977 – September 11, 2001) was an American equities trader and volunteer firefighter known for saving as many as 18 lives during the September 11 attacks in New York City, during which he lost his own life.
Ear ...
, class of 1999. Crowther, who played on BC's lacrosse team, was an equity trader who died saving the lives of at least 10 people during the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. He used a red bandanna that he often carried to keep from breathing in smoke and debris.
Fight Song: "For Boston"
"For Boston" is claimed to be America's oldest college
fight song
A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...
, composed by T. J. Hurley in 1885. It has two verses but the most commonly sung one is the first verse. Boston-based band
Dropkick Murphys covered this song on their album ''
Sing Loud, Sing Proud!
''Sing Loud, Sing Proud!'' is the third studio album from Boston punk rock band the Dropkick Murphys. Before the album's release in 2001, guitarist Rick Barton left the band. He announced James Lynch of Boston punk band The Ducky Boys as his s ...
''. Changes have been made to the song, including reworking the phrase "for here men are men" into "for here all are one" in the first verse.
Notable persons
BC students were universally called "Heightsmen" until 1925 when Caitlin Beckman became the first "Heightswoman" to receive a BC degree. "Heightsonian" was originally conceived as a way to gender neutralize the original term "Heightsmen", though "Eagles", once exclusively used for members of the university's athletics teams, is more commonly used.
The term "Golden Eagles" refers strictly to BC graduates who have celebrated their 50th anniversary reunion. "Double Eagles" refer to alumni who attended
Boston College High School
, motto_translation = ''So they may know You.''
, address = 150 Morrissey Boulevard
, city = Boston
, state = Massachusetts
, zipcode = 02125
, country ...
and graduated from the college and "Triple Eagles" are those alumni who are also graduates of a graduate program.
There are over 179,000 alumni in over 120 countries around the world.
[ Boston College students have enjoyed success in winning prestigious post-graduate fellowships and awards, including recent ]Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...
, Marshall
Marshall may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria
Canada
* Marshall, Saskatchewan
* The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia
Liberia
* Marshall, Liberia
Marshall Islands
* Marshall Islands, an i ...
, Mellon, Fulbright, Truman, Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...
, and Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for president ...
scholarship
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholars ...
s, among others. BC's yield rate for Fulbright awards is the highest in the country. In 2007, students in the German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
department were awarded 13 Fulbright scholarships, five more than the previous highest number from a single department. Although formal numbers are not kept, and the claim cannot be confirmed, the number of award winners from one department to study in a specific country is considered by some scholars to be the highest in the 60-year history of the Fulbright program.
File:SpeakerO'Neill.jpg, Tip O'Neill
Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill Jr. (December 9, 1912 – January 5, 1994) was an American politician who served as the 47th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, representing northern Boston, Massachusetts, as ...
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U ...
1936
File:John Kerry official Secretary of State portrait.jpg, John F. Kerry
U.S. Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
U.S. Senator
2004 Democratic Presidential nominee
In United States politics and government, the term presidential nominee has two different meanings:
# A candidate for president of the United States who has been selected by the delegates of a political party at the party's national convention ( ...
J.D. 1976
File:Nicholas Burns, U.S. Ambassador.jpg, R. Nicholas Burns
United States Ambassador to China
The United States Ambassador to China is the chief American diplomat to People's Republic of China (PRC). The United States has sent diplomatic representatives to China since 1844, when Caleb Cushing, as commissioner, negotiated the Treaty of W ...
Former United States Permanent Representative to NATO
The United States Permanent Representative to NATO (commonly called the U.S. Ambassador to NATO) is the official representative of the United States to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Representative has the rank of full ambassador ...
1978
File:Moniz official portrait standing.jpg, Ernest Moniz
Ernest Jeffrey Moniz, GCIH (; born December 22, 1944) is an American nuclear physicist and former government official. From May 2013 to January 2017, he served as the 13th United States secretary of Energy in the Obama Administration. Prior to ...
U.S. Secretary of Energy
The United States secretary of energy is the head of the United States Department of Energy, a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and fifteenth in the presidential line of succession. The position was created on October 1, 1977, when Pr ...
1966
File:Cellucci paul.jpg, Paul Cellucci
Argeo Paul Cellucci (; April 24, 1948 – June 8, 2013) was an American politician and diplomat from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Republican, he served as the 69th governor of Massachusetts from 1999 to 2001, and as the United State ...
Governor of Massachusetts
The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces.
Massachuset ...
U.S. Ambassador to Canada
1970, J.D. 1973
File:Dannel Malloy 2016.jpg, Dannel P. Malloy
Governor of Connecticut
The governor of Connecticut is the head of government of Connecticut, and the commander-in-chief of the U.S. state, state's Connecticut Military Department, military forces. The Governor (United States), governor has a duty to enforce state laws, ...
1977, J.D. 1980
File:Mmheckler.JPG, Margaret Heckler
Margaret Mary Heckler (née O'Shaughnessy; June 21, 1931 – August 6, 2018) was an American politician and diplomat who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1967 until 1983. A member of the Republican Party, she als ...
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
The United States secretary of health and human services is the head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all health matters. The secretary is ...
U.S. Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
U.S. Ambassador to Ireland
The United States Ambassador to Ireland is the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from the United States of America to Ireland. It is considered a highly prestigious position within the United States Foreign Service. The current ambassa ...
LL.B 1956
File:Marty Walsh.jpg, Marty Walsh
Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and former union official. He has been the 29th United States Secretary of Labor since March 23, 2021. A Democrat, he previously served as the 54th mayor of Boston from 2014, ...
U.S. Secretary of Labor
The United States Secretary of Labor is a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and as the head of the United States Department of Labor, controls the department, and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all ot ...
Mayor of Boston
The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a mayor to a four- ...
2009
File:J. F. Fitzgerald.jpg, John F. Fitzgerald
John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald (February 11, 1863 – October 2, 1950) was an American Democratic politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He served as a U.S. Representative and Mayor of Boston. He also made unsuccessful runs for the United ...
First Irish-Catholic Mayor of Boston
The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a mayor to a four- ...
Grandfather of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
1885
File:Joeseph E. Brennan.jpg, Joseph E. Brennan
70th Governor of Maine
The governor of Maine is the head of government of the U.S. state of Maine. Before Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820, Maine was part of Massachusetts and the governor of Massachusetts was chief executive.
The current governor of Maine is J ...
1958
File:Ambassador Scott Brown.jpg, Scott Brown
Former United States Senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
for Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
J.D. 1985
File:Edward Markey, official portrait, 114th Congress.jpg, Ed Markey
Edward John Markey (born July 11, 1946) is an American lawyer, politician, and former Army reservist who has served as the junior United States senator from Massachusetts since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representa ...
United States Senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
from Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
1968, J.D. 1972
File:Stephen Lynch 2019.jpg, Stephen F. Lynch
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
from Massachusetts
J.D. 1991
File:Mike Capuano.jpg, Mike Capuano
Michael Everett Capuano ( ; born January 9, 1952) is an American politician and attorney who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1999 to 2019. A Democrat, his district included the northern three-fourths of Boston, as well ...
Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
from Massachusetts
J.D. 1977
File:Archbishop of the Military Services visits ROK 150826-F-BX159-001 (cropped).jpg, The Most Reverend Timothy Broglio Archbishop of the Archdiocese for Military Services 1973
File:Leonard Nimoy by Gage Skidmore.jpg, Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy (; March 26, 1931 – February 27, 2015) was an American actor, famed for playing Spock in the '' Star Trek'' franchise for almost 50 years. This includes originating Spock in the original ''Star Trek'' series in 1966, th ...
Actor
1952
File:EdMcMahon05.jpg, Ed McMahon
Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American announcer, game show host, comedian, actor, singer, and combat aviator. McMahon and Johnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, the ABC game sh ...
Comedian and television presenter
''(Did not graduate)''
File:Amy Poehler (8894155873) (cropped).jpg, Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler (; born September 16, 1971) is an American comedian, actress, writer, producer, and director. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler co-founded the improvisational-comedy tro ...
Actress and comedian
1993
File:Chris ODonnell Max Payne 2008.jpg, Chris O'Donnell
Christopher Eugene O'Donnell (born June 26, 1970) is an American actor and former model. He played Charlie Sims in '' Scent of a Woman'', Chris Reece in ''School Ties'', D'Artagnan in ''The Three Musketeers'', Jack Foley in the drama film '' ...
Actor
1992
File:Elisabeth Hasselbeck in Donna Karan, 2010.jpg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck
Elisabeth DelPadre Hasselbeck (; born May 28, 1977) is an American retired television personality and talk show host. Hasselbeck rose to prominence in 2001 as a contestant on the second season of the American version of '' Survivor'', where sh ...
Television personality and talk show host
1999
File:Phil Schiller at AWDC 2012.jpg, Phil Schiller
Philip W. Schiller (born June 8, 1960) is an Apple Fellow at Apple Inc. He is a prominent figure in Apple's keynotes and has been a member of the company's executive team since Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997. In 2020 he became the first ...
Vice president of Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
B.S. 1982
File:Nikesh Arora(cropped).jpg, Nikesh Arora
Nikesh Arora (born February 9, 1968) is an Indian-American business executive. Arora was formerly a senior executive at Google. He served as the president of SoftBank Group from October 2014 to June 2016. On June 1, 2018, Arora took on the role ...
CEO of Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is an American multinational cybersecurity company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The core products is a platform that includes advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls to ...
Former senior executive at Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
1995
See also
* Hopkins House (Boston College)
* List of Jesuit sites
This list includes past and present buildings, facilities and institutions associated with the Society of Jesus. In each country, sites are listed in chronological order of start of Jesuit association.
Nearly all these sites have bee ...
* List of presidents of Boston College
Notes
References
External links
*
Boston College Athletics website
{{Authority control
Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities
Catholic universities and colleges in Massachusetts
1863 establishments in Massachusetts
Educational institutions established in 1863
Gothic Revival architecture in Massachusetts
Jesuit universities and colleges in the United States