Boston College was founded by the Jesuits in 1863 to serve the sons of Boston's Irish immigrants. The college officially opened its doors on Harrison Avenue in the South End of Boston in September 1864 with three teachers and 22 students in the preparatory program. According to the vision of Fr. John McElroy, S.J., Boston College would offer a classical education to deserving young men in need of opportunity, one grounded in the liberal arts and in a commitment to the service of others. Today a coeducational university spread across 185 acres in suburban Chestnut Hill, Boston College may seem a world apart from that small school in the teeming heart of Boston that was its first home. Through 14 decades of growth and change, however, the University has held fast to the Jesuit ideals that inspired its founders. Some measures of the University's growth include:
Enrollment
From those 22 boys, enrollment at Boston College has grown to 14, 695 students
in undergraduate and graduate programs. The University conferred its first degree
on a woman in 1926 -- a Master of Arts on Margaret Ursula Magrath; today women
make up 54 percent of the total enrollment.
Courses of Study
The nine seniors who comprised BC's first graduating class in 1877 received
the only degree the school then offered: the Bachelor of Arts. Students now
choose from among 11 schools, colleges, and institutes offering 14 degree programs
and two certificate programs in arts and sciences, education, law, management,
nursing, and social work.
Campus Facilities
Boston College moved to Chestnut Hill in March 1913 with the opening of Gasson
Hall, which served as classroom building, administration building, library,
and dining hall for a student body that was made up exclusively of commuters.
The first library, Bapst, opened in 1928; the first residence halls, Claver,
Loyola, and Xavier, opened in 1955 on what is now the Upper Campus. Today BC's
physical plant includes 28 residence halls, 22 academic buildings, 15 administration
buildings, nine libraries, nine dining areas, and a sports complex that includes
42,000-seat Alumni Stadium and the 8,500-seat basketball and hockey arena, Conte
Forum.
Educational Resources
The first library on the Chestnut Hill campus occupied a wing of Gasson Hall.
Boston College now has nine libraries housing more than 1.7 million volumes,
government documents, and periodicals, and more than 2.5 million microform units.
The Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections contains more than 45
named collections, with a strong emphasis in the areas of Irish studies, British
Catholic authors, Jesuitana, Boston history, and Congressional archives. The
O'Neill Computing Center, located in the Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Library, is
equipped with dozens of workstations for word processing and e-mail transmission.
All residence hall rooms and faculty and administrative offices are wired into
the Agora network, which provides students, faculty, and staff with individual
access to e-mail and the Internet. The Academic Development Center, also in
O'Neill Library, offers extensive tutoring services to undergraduates and teaching
workshops to faculty and graduate assistants.
Endowment
In 1865, Joseph J. Sinnott, a Philadelphia physician, donated $1,000 to establish
a scholarship fund -- the school's first endowment. In 1994, total University
endowment passed the $500 million mark.
Athletics
Boston College fielded its first athletic team in 1870, in baseball. The University
now offers 33 men's and women's varsity sports, 23 intramural sports, and 15
club sports.