The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Boston University

BOSTON UNIVERSITY. This institution was chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1869. The three men named in the charter as the original corporators were Isaac Rich, Lee Claflin and Jacob Sleeper. The power to hold and administer funds, establish departments of instruction, appoint officers, and, in general, to direct the administration, vests in the corporation, whose legal title is “The Trustees of Boston University.” The body consists of the president of the University, ex officio, and five classes of trustees elected from year to year for the term of five years. The president of the University and the deans of the several departments constitute the University Council. To it belongs, among other duties, that of securing a harmonious adjustment of all interdepartmental questions of administration. The members of the University Council, together with all the regular professors in the different schools and the College of Liberal Arts, constitute the University Senate. All promotions to degrees are in the name of this body and of the corporation. This body consists of all persons who have acquired any degree or diploma of graduation in the University. Every promotion to a degree, or to the status of a graduate, is accordingly, promotion to membership in the Convocation, with defined privileges of representation in the government of the University, and with corresponding duties. Boston University consists of the following departments: a College of Liberal Arts (organized 1873); a College of Business Administration (organized 1913); a School of Theology (organized 1839, made a department of Boston University in 1871); a School of Law (organized 1872); a School of Medicine (organized 1873), and a Graduate School (organized 1874) . The faculty numbers 188. The enrolment for the year ending 31 Aug. 1916 was 2,600. The University is co-educational throughout. Boston University confers the usual academic and professional degrees for resident study, but has never conferred any honorary degrees. Since its organization Boston University has had three presidents: William Fairfield Warren (1873-1903), William Edwards Huntington (1903-1911), Lemuel Herbert Murlin (1911).