The Board of Undergraduate Studies was formerly called the Academic Council. The Academic Council was created on April 18, 1944. The name of the committee changed in the Fall of 1972 to the Board of Undergraduate Studies.

The Board of Undergraduate Studies is a Xavier University Academic Committee. The role of the Board of Undergraduate Studies (formerly the Academic Council) has changed with time. The Annual Document of University Committees for 2009-2010 provides the following information on the role, responsibilities, and membership of this committee: [This committee] "1. Monitors the implementation of the University Core and is responsible for overseeing faculty votes on proposed changes to the University Core. 2. Assists in overseeing the assessment of student academic achievement in the University Core and special academic programs such as E Pluribus Unum, Scholars and HAB. 3. Works towards resolving redundancies across colleges involving: • new undergraduate courses or revisions to existing undergraduate courses that are approved by the college curriculum committees. • new undergraduate majors and minors or revisions to existing undergraduate majors and minors that are approved by the college curriculum committees. (Majors and minors are defined in the University Catalog.) • new undergraduate programs or revisions to existing undergraduate programs that are approved by the college curriculum committees or program curriculum committees. (Programs are defined in the University Catalog.) 4. Ensures that resources exist to accommodate the requirements of new undergraduate courses, majors, minors and programs or revisions to existing undergraduate courses, majors, minors and programs when the requirements draw upon resources in other colleges. 5. Makes certain that undergraduate courses, majors, minors and programs support the Mission of the University. 6. Initiates and recommends improvements to undergraduate University Grading Policies, such as standards for Honors,standards for the Dean's List, university grading designations, and standards for graduation. 7. Initiates revisions and recommends improvements to the Undergraduate University Catalog. 8. Reviews and makes recommendations on issues concerning the scheduling of the Undergraduate Academic Calendar."..."The membership consists of six (6) tenured or tenure-track faculty members (two from each college elected by the Faculty Assembly), the deans (or their representatives) of the three colleges, three (3) students recommended by Student Government(one from each college), University Registrar (ex officio, non-voting), and the Academic Vice President/Provost (ex officio,non-voting). The chair will be elected from the faculty members by the committee." (Source: Annual Document of University Committees, 2009-2010)