The Jesuit Community at Boston College is one of the largest in the world. It comprises some 91 members (these figures are for the academic year 2008-2009). Some 54 of these are full-time faculty members, administrators, part-time teachers or administrators. There are 23 Jesuit graduate students from a variety of countries, the majority from Africa and Asia. Four Jesuits staff St. Ignatius Church, which is a parish of the Archdiocese of Boston.
Jesuits in the United States are divided into ten administrative areas, called provinces. The BC Jesuit Community is part of the New England Province Many of the Jesuits in the BC community belong to this province, but a significant number of the Jesuits working at BC comes from other provinces in the U. S. The ten provinces in the United States form the Jesuit Conference, whose offices are in Washington, D.C.
The New England Province is one of 85 Jesuit provinces (and nine dependent regions) across the world. The superior general of the worldwide Jesuits is the Rev. Adolfo Nicolás, S.J.
Until 1970 the Jesuit Community and Boston College were the same legal entity, and the Rector of the Jesuit Community was also President of the university. In that year the Jesuit Community became an independent charitable corporation under Massachusetts law and the offices of Rector and President were separated. The president is elected by the board of trustees. By university statute the board of trustees must include at least eight Jesuits, out of some 40 members. Since the founding of the university all its presidents have been Jesuits but this is not required by university statutes.
The Web site of the Jesuit Community is a useful source of information. Here one can also find links to several documents that embody the views of the Jesuit Community and of individual Jesuits about their work at Boston College. There are also links to a variety of other Jesuit Web sites.