BU president to retire

BU Today announces that Robert Brown will step down as president of the university at the end of the current school year, his 18th as president.

In e-mail to faculty and staff, Brown says he will take a sabbatical, then "return to teaching and writing" as a professor in the school's College of Engineering.
He adds:

We have reached many notable milestones over the past years. Most importantly, we solidified our role as a major research university, with our faculty leading us to the forefront of traditional and emerging fields across the breadth of the University. We are committed to excellence and impact, and it shows in the growing recognition of individual faculty and programs, and the placement of our doctoral students. Also, last year our federal research expenditures topped $630 million, an all-time high. Our recognition in 2012 by membership in the Association of American Universities places us among the leading research universities in the country.

Of all our accomplishments, I am most proud of our large commitment to undergraduate student need-based financial aid and its impact on the diversity of our student body. The results speak for themselves - we estimate that our domestic freshman class this fall includes 25 percent Pell grant recipients, 25 percent first-generation students, and 33 percent underrepresented minority students, while our acceptance rate hit an all-time low of 14 percent. Today, more than ever, Boston University's student body reflects the diversity of the United States and abroad. This diversity is at the heart of our values.