LETTER: Support for Seidel

As an alumnus who was recently involved in academic affairs and student activities at Boston University, I am disappointed in the recent reaction to the events at the last BU Student Union meeting. I worked closely with Union President Matt Seidel over my last two years at BU and know Matt as someone who will always put an objective that will help improve the lives of BU students before everything else. Not to my surprise, this is exactly what Matt did last week. He saw that postponing the meeting would impede proposals that would help the student body and knew that waiting would not be beneficial to the students these proposals would benefit. I agree with the many articles and editorials that Matt was wrong to violate the constitution and that it probably was not the smartest decision to hold a Union meeting on the same night as the Beanpot. However, a very smart person once explained, ‘You must always follow the rules, unless it benefits the students.’ His mistake was made with the intent of expediting the work of the Union in order for the student body to see results quicker, and this should be remembered.

More importantly, we all acknowledge that Matt may have made a poor decision last Monday evening, but I urge the Union to move on immediately. The Daily Free Press states that ‘The Union can’t immediately start dealing with important issues such as reforming the College of Arts and Sciences advising system and instituting a more informative Boston University Collaborative Degree Program website. Instead, they have to deal with this misconduct on behalf of the president’ (‘Righting a wrong,’ Feb. 17). This is definitely not true. I would much rather see the Union spend time on these important initiatives than waste time discussing Matt’s actions. The article explains that Campus Safety Committee Chairman Leo Gameng claims that ‘I have heard members, that if and or when [Seidel] gets censured, they would want to move for an investigation on impeachment’ (‘Union president may be censured,’ Feb. 17). This would be the worst mistake that could be made. Think about how much valuable time this would take up that should be used on the great initiatives that the Union is working on. Throughout the past four years, I have watched the Union consistently underperform as a result of spending more time worrying about internal issues that have plagued the Union, rather than working on its initiatives themselves. I would like everyone to ask themselves, should the Union be using its time to discuss internal issues that affect the few in the room or initiatives that are beneficial to every university student? The choice is yours: proceed with the Union’s objectives or spend the rest of the semester discussing this mistake. I think the answer is obvious – it’s time to move on and get back to work.

Steven Holtzman

CAS ’08, GRS ’08

Former CAS Forum Executive VP

of’ Financial Affairs