Boston College is located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded on 31 March 1863. It is recognized as a private research university but it uses ‘college’ in its name. Boston College has eight constituent colleges that provide three types of degrees: Master’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, and doctoral degrees. The eight colleges are Boston College Law School, Woods College of Advancing Studies, Graduate School of Social Work, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Carroll School of Management, Connell School of Nursing, and Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences. Boston College’s nickname is ‘Eagles’. It was the first university to operate in Boston city and now became the foremost university in the country in scientific research and liberal arts. Boston College is situated six miles to the west of the city of Boston in the Chestnut Hill section of Newton, Massachusetts.
Boston College has three campuses: Chestnut Hill main campus, Newton Campus, and Brighton Campus.
- Chestnut Hill main campus-
This is Boston college’s main campus located in Chestnut Hill. It is commonly known as ‘Heights’ or ‘Crowned Hilltop’ because of its location and the presence of over 120 buildings having sky-touching gothic towers. This campus is also registered on the National Register of Historic Places. Chestnut Hill campus is located 6 miles to the west of downtown Boston. It was designed by Charles Donagh Maginnis. It has eight libraries containing journals, microform items, manuscripts, and government documents, all of these make about twelve million items. Apart from that, the library includes the original manuscript by Francis Xavier, Galileo, and Ignatius of Loyola as well as ancient Greek pottery, Japanese prints, Caribbean folk art and literature, and U.S government documents.
2. Newton Campus-
Newton Campus is located one mile west of Boston’s main campus. It is home to the Boston College Law School, Trinity Chapel, and Stuart Dining Hall, and has various residency halls for freshmen. Newton Campus includes a recreation center and many athletics fields. In 1996, a new building opened on the campus that accommodated the Law Library. Newton Campus initially was known as Newton College of the Sacred Heart and was the women’s college for arts. It merged with Boston College in 1974. It was in debt at the time of closing and Boston college took the responsibility of paying off the debt and also carrying on the undergraduate program of the college.
3. Brighton Campus-
Brighton campus was built between 2004 and 2007 on land bought from the Archdiocese of Boston. The campus includes a mansion of Italian Renaissance style that includes collections of art history.
How did the main campus of Boston College end up at Chestnut Hill?
Benedict Joseph Fenwick, a Jesuit in 1825 dreamed of opening a college in Boston city. But after some time due to a rift with Boston’s leaders, Benedict decided to leave the city and decided to open a college 45 miles to the west of the city. But John McElroy retained the vision of Benedict of a college in Boston after he felt its greater requirement in Boston due to the surge in the Irish Catholic population.
John started raising funds and finally, in 1859, the college started its first class. At that time, the college had only two buildings: a church and a schoolhouse. But after two years, the college closed again. Almost three decades later, Boston college formally got approval from high authorities in Massachusetts and became the first higher learning institute in the Boston area.
In 1907, the new president, Thomas I. Gasson got inspired by the ‘city upon a hill’ vision of John Winthrop and decided to not expand the southern end of Boston College. In less than a year, he bought a farm on Chestnut Hill which is six miles to the west of Boston City. He began the construction in 1909 of making a world-renowned university by organizing an international competition for the design plan of the college.
Why is the AHANA term famous in Boston college?
AHANA stands for people of African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American. It originated in 1979 by two students. It was so because at that time the college used the term ‘Office of Minority Programs’ by which these students get offended as ‘minority’ means ‘less’. So the term AHANA was discovered to remove social and cultural differences and got approval from the board of trustees. Boston College has given approval to more than fifty institutions in the United States to use this term.
Conclusion
Initially, in the Boston City, Boston college gets shifted six miles west to the city of Chestnut Hill in Massachusetts which is the main campus known as Chestnut Hill. After so many ups and downs, the college got built and granted its first degree to women in 1926. Until 1970, Boston college remained a college for women. Also, in 2005, the college changed its policy to allow gay students to take admissions also.
