CHESTNUT HILL -- Boston College will invest $1.6 billion in its future through a 10-year Strategic Plan that will add up to 100 additional faculty, create new academic centers and institutes, allocate $800 million for construction and renovation -- including $300 million for academic facilities -- and provide an increase in ongoing support of academic programs and initiatives by $43.5 million annually, the university announced Dec. 5.

To provide the facilities needed to support the strategic plan, the university is proposing the construction of four academic buildings, including a 125,000 square foot facility for the humanities, a 75,000 square foot facility for the Graduate School of Social Work and the Connell School of Nursing, a 100,000 square foot Institute for Integrated Sciences, and an 85,000 square foot Stokes Commons that will serve as an interim student center before being converted to academic space. In addition, Boston College is proposing a 285,000 square foot student center, a 200,000 square foot student recreation complex, a fine arts district with a museum, auditorium and academic space, and 610 additional beds of undergraduate housing, as well as new playing fields for baseball, softball and intramurals, and a field house for tennis and track.

“We realize that we have set an ambitious agenda for ourselves,” said BC president Jesuit Father William P. Leahy. “But Boston College has always strived to live up to its motto of ‘Ever to Excel,’ and as we approach in 2013 the 150th anniversary of the founding of Boston College, this plan will help to make a great university even greater.”

Boston College, currently ranked 35th among national universities by U.S. News and World Report, receives the fourth-highest number of applications among private universities in the United States with 28,800 applicants for the 2,250 seats in its freshman class.