Boston University Diversity Statement
Boston University’s founders opened its doors to all students without regard to religion, race, or gender. Building and sustaining a vibrant community of scholars, students, and staff remains essential to our mission of contributing to, and preparing students to thrive in, an increasingly interconnected world.
We strive to create environments for learning, working, and living that are enriched by racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity. We seek to cultivate an atmosphere of respect for individual differences in life experience, sexual orientation, and religious belief, and we aspire to be free of intellectual parochialism, barriers to access, and ethnocentrism.
Success in a competitive, global milieu depends upon our ongoing commitment to welcome and engage the wisdom, creativity, and aspirations of all peoples. The excellence we seek emerges from the contributions and talents of every member of the Boston University community.
There are many resources and offices at BU to support students. As it relates to diversity and inclusion, we hope you’ll find the following particularly helpful:
Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground
The Thurman Center was founded in 1986 to preserve the legacy of Dr. Howard Thurman, who spent his life working to break barriers that separate people based on race, culture, religion, ethnicity, gender and sexual identity.
It currently serves as BU’s cultural hub and emphasizes the importance of stepping outside your comfort zones to build relationships and share experiences with others. The center offers are a wide array of cultural programs, lectures, discussions, films, events and resources for all members of the BU community to attend.
Newbury Center
The Newbury Center opened its doors in January 2021 with the goal of fostering the holistic success of first-generation students at Boston University.
It aims to offer programming and services designed to ensure that first-generation students experience the same well being, belonging, self-efficacy, and academic accomplishment as their continuing-generation peers.
Specific initiatives include support for navigating through the financial aid system, making the best use of academic resources and taking full advantage of internship opportunities.
Center for Anti-racist Research
The Center for Antiracist Research was founded with the mission to convene researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to figure out novel and practical ways to understand, explain and solve problems of racial inequality and injustice.
It fosters exhaustive racial research, research-based policy innovation, data driven advocacy campaigns and narrative-change initiatives.
Members of the Boston University community can apply to be part of The Center Affiliates Program which is building out a network of faculty and graduate students engaged in anti-racist research.
Student Activities Office
Boston University has over 450 student organizations and the Student Activities Office (SAO) can help students find peers who share their passions and interests or even get the ball rolling to create an entirely new organization.
These organizations include a variety of identity based clubs that BU students can sign up for and join.
BU Hillel
The mission of BU Hillel is to inspire, educate, and empower Boston University students to lead meaningful, joyous Jewish lives.
Marsh Chapel
Marsh Chapel is a place for all, an interdenominational ministry at Boston University preaching a gospel of grace and freedom, a responsible Christian liberalism.
They cherish common faith, common ground, and, especially, a common hope.
ABOUT
Boston University
Questrom School of Business
Center for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Rafik B. Hariri Building 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 205
Boston, MA 02215
