On behalf of the entire Boston College family, I am pleased to introduce you to the Boston College Web site. Within these electronic pages, I trust that you will find whatever information you seek about our University.
I would like to take this opportunity to offer my vision for Boston College—a vision that looks to the 21st century, but that is grounded in the University's past.
The history of Boston College is a narrative of response to society's call. In 1863, that call came from an immigrant community that knew the day's hard wage but not the future's promise. Boston College offered that promise.
Today, the call emanates from a world that has experienced an explosion of knowledge, but not a corresponding growth in understanding; a world that lacks trust in its leaders and faith in its institutions. It is a world that has developed wondrous technologies that link continents, but isolate humans, leaving many men and women weary and dispirited, feeling distant from moral purpose, uncertain about knowledge or the very worth of human endeavor.
Boston College is uniquely capable of answering this call, of speaking to this world, to our time. As an institution of higher education, Boston College is committed to the discovery and transmission of knowledge. But reflecting its Jesuit and Catholic heritage, it also seeks to integrate excellence and religious commitment, to both inform and form its students.
Boston College endeavors to educate a new generation of leaders for the new millennium—men and women who will be capable of shaping a new century with vision, justice, and charity—with a sense of calling, with concern for all of the human family.
We pursue this challenge because it is a worthy goal for any university, but particularly for Boston College, a university uniquely suited to be a beacon of hope and light for all. I invite you to join us, as a prospective student, parent, or simply as a friend.
William P. Leahy, S.J.
President
