Gilliam will face many challenges, including ensuring that populations of underrepresented students don’t shrink after the Supreme Court decided to end using affirmative action in college admissions.
Boston University has joined the growing list of higher education institutions with Black leaders.
On Wednesday, the city’s largest university announced that Dr. Melissa Gilliam, 58, would succeed Robert Brown to become its next president – making her the first Black woman to hold the position, according to The Boston Globe.
“In many ways, we are being asked to define our purpose and our views,” Gilliam said. “They’re really good questions. It prevents us from resting on our laurels. We have to really be honest with ourselves about the concerns that people have, listen deeply, and then figure out how we’re going to address them.”
Brown served as BU’s president from 2005 until last summer. The school launched a search that lasted over a year and generated almost 400 viable candidates. Interim President Kenneth Freeman will stay in her position until Gilliam takes over in July and will assist her transition over the spring.
Gilliam, a physician and a top official at Ohio State University, will face many challenges, including fostering a stronger sense of community across the vast and diverse institution. She will also be tasked with ensuring that populations of underrepresented students don’t shrink after the Supreme Court decided to end the use of affirmative action in college admissions.
The incoming president said she believes reaching out to potential students far before the admissions process begins will be critical to accepting diverse student groups. She said such a move includes developing ties with a wider range of secondary schools and enhancing the BU experience for disadvantaged students once they come.
“If we create an environment where students feel included and aware that this is a place where they’re going to get a tremendous education, but also really feel like it’s home, then you start to create a virtuous cycle,” Gilliam said. “Then students [start] informing others, and they’re going to want to apply and come here.”
Gilliam is also concerned about affordability and retention. She said increasing efforts to boost graduation rates would be critical so that fewer students leave with debt but no degree.
Several students expressed optimism that the incoming president will be able to foster a more profound sense of community at the institution, which enrolls around 37,500 students, more than 10,000 of whom are foreign, in over 300 academic programs.
Student body president Dhruv Kapadia said ensuring student workers are respected, adequately compensated, and have suitable working conditions is a top priority in students’ minds.
Gauri Nema, a fourth-year student, hopes the next president of BU is “more transparent” and “more culturally attuned to the student body and where they come from.”
Gilliam’s appointment comes at a time when BU has been under fire for personnel reductions at its Center for Antiracist Research, chaired by celebrity scholar Ibram X. Kendi. Gilliam declined to comment on the specifics but said she would rely on her “foundational values” of academic freedom and free expression, and attentively listen to staff or student concerns.
Gilliam said she is looking forward to returning to New England, where she studied English literature as an undergraduate at Yale University and received medical training at Harvard Medical School.
She added that her years of clinical experience and academic teaching and research positions have prepared her for where she is, adding that being the university’s president “is the role that I’ve been training my entire career to do.”
Mayor Michelle Wu said that Gilliam’s “interdisciplinary approach to education and research, dedication to promoting equity and inclusion in every space, and commitment to engage the campus community at all levels will have impacts not just at BU but across our entire city,” The Globe reported.
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