Boston College opened on Harrison Avenue in Boston’s South End neighborhood in 1863, welcoming its first students in September, 1864. The curriculum covered a traditional Classical education, including English, Latin and Greek, Arithmetic, Logic, Poetry, and Philosophy, and was designed to last seven years.

The college’s early teaching faculty was made up of Jesuit priests and scholastics, although some lay teachers taught on a part-time basis. After the move to Chestnut Hill, the Jesuit faculty of Boston College lived on the college campus in St Mary’s Hall, which opened in 1917. Lay teachers had been a common presence on the faculty since at least 1902 and included Herbert S. Carruth, who taught constitutional history, and Dr. James Field Spalding, who taught modern English literature. With the establishment and expansion of the graduate and professional schools in the 1930s, the College’s percentage of lay faculty increased considerably. This was the beginning of an upward trend that continued throughout the twentieth century: in 1920, there were 3 lay faculty out of a total of 31; by 1930 this had increased to 30 lay faculty out of 45; by 1990, there were only 32 Jesuit faculty members on a faculty of 570.

In the post-World War II period, enrollment at Boston College increased dramatically. This necessitated a concomitant expansion in faculty numbers; at the same time, many Boston College alumni were beginning their research and academic careers, having continued their studies at the graduate level elsewhere. A large number of these alumni returned to Boston College as faculty members, including John L. Mahoney to the English Department and Donald J. White to the Economics Department.

Throughout the twentieth century, Boston College’s curriculum maintained a strong emphasis on the Classical education that had dominated since the school’s inception, despite the popularity of strongly elective-based curricula at other universities. In the post-war years, though, this Classical tradition was enveloped within what is still known as the Core Curriculum. In the twenty-first century, Boston College faculty, now numbering over 700 full-time staff, continue to play a prominent role in their professions and to uphold the values of the Jesuit liberal arts tradition.

Sources

“Current Fellows,” John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, accessed May 23rd, 2013, http://www.gf.org/fellows/current/

Donovan, Charles F., S.J., Dunigan, David R., S.J., and FitzGerald, Paul A., S.J. History of Boston College: From the Beginnings to 1990. Chestnut Hill: The University Press of Boston College, 1990.

“Facts & Figures, 2012-2013,” Boston College Office of News and Public Affairs, accessed May 23, 2013, http://www.bc.edu/offices/pubaf/about/facts.html

Hayward, Ed. “Boston College Professor Udayan Mohanty Named Royal Society of Chemistry Fellow,” Boston College Office of News and Public Affairs, accessed May 23, 2013.