Sprawled along the Charles River near Harvard and M.I.T., Boston University has had little of the national attention paid to its more famous neighbors. Nonetheless, with 15,031 full-time students, B.U. is now the nation's third largest private university, after Brigham Young and N.Y.U. Last week, to succeed retiring President Harold Case, Boston U.'s trustees named Arland Christ-Janer, 44, who for the past six years has been president of Iowa's Cornell College.
The top man on B.U.'s list of 275 nominees, Christ-Janer represents something of a break with the school's presidential tradition. All five of his...