Two Boston University Student Government senators from the Florence and Chafetz Hillel House raised concerns to SG President Andrew Cho during a Senate meeting Monday about a recent controversy surrounding Hillel.
The argument began when Cho, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, spoke in his President’s Address at the beginning of the meeting about a group of student activists who claimed that they were asked to leave a Hillel event on Jan. 28 because of their racial backgrounds, as The Daily Free Press reported March 18.
“The fact that one organization had the reputation to be immediately unwelcome at an event and for another organization to refuse dialogue with them is a grievance for our entire community,” Cho said during his speech.
The address was interrupted when Daniel Hochberg, a Hillel senator, said Cho was only addressing one side of the complicated situation.
“We wanted to ensure that we were having a safe and clear dialogue with them,” Hochberg, a senior in the Questrom School of Business, said during the meeting, “and we had no intention to cause any harm or any problem with diversity and race with that community.”
After the meeting, Cho said he meant no offense when he brought up the Hillel controversy and that he understood why the senators from Hillel felt the need to speak out.
“A lot of people are talking about it, so we can’t pretend we shouldn’t also recognize that happened,” Cho said. “So, that was my intention of bringing it up. It definitely wasn’t my intention to blame one side or to just use one side of the story, but obviously, it added to the dialogue and also just proves that it is something to be brought up.”
During the meeting SG Senate Chair Courtney Bold also announced that two judicial commissioners, Timothy Geraghty and Justin Flynn, have stepped down due to “apparent conflicts of interests that prevent them from being a neutral third party.”
The Judicial Commission will suspend its reviewing power until elections are over and until new commissioners are appointed, added Bold, a senior in Questrom.
Geraghty, a senior in the College of Engineering, wrote in an email following the meeting that even though he stepped down, he hopes to see the Constitution evolve so that SG can “regain the trust of the student body.”
Flynn, a VP of finance candidate with the slate BU Recharged, said in a phone interview after the meeting that he resigned from his position because he is running for election this year, and he does not want this conflict of interest to undermine the judicial process.
“As I talk to the [Student] Elections Commission, they explained how I would have to temporarily step down from my position so I will not be ruling on election commission when I was in fact running,” said Flynn, a junior in Questrom. “We reached a term that it is best to remove myself from the judicial commissioner position because I am running on a slate.”
During the meeting, the SG Department of Academic Affairs proposed two initiatives that needed Senate approval. The first was a $2,000 budget to give out 1,000 care packages to students during the week of April 25.
The budget request passed with 34 votes in support of the request, zero against and one abstaining.
The second initiative proposed that CAS writing tutors edit students’ essays during the week before the finals study period in Warren Towers, West Campus residences and The Towers.
The proposal that requested a budget of $480 passed unanimously.
SG Vice President of Internal Affairs Yasmin Gentry spoke during the meeting about the outcome of the
Gender Advocacy and Progress Week initiative that took place from March 14 to 19, and she called it a great success.
“I’m hoping the initiative continues to be a SG initiative, because there was a lot of great feedback from administrators, students groups and individuals that made me feel this is something that should occur every year,” Gentry, a senior in the College of Communication, said during the meeting.
After the meeting, several senators shared mixed opinions regarding Cho’s opening remarks about the incident at Hillel.
Hochberg said after the meeting that he felt Cho shouldn’t have used his address to discuss such a sensitive issue and wield his personal opinion when addressing SG.
“[The speech] was just not called for,” Hochberg said. “He deliberately called out an organization, and it just wasn’t right. If he was going to take the floor to give his opinions, then someone who actually represents the community he’s attacking should also have a chance to say something.”
Atid Malka, a Hillel senator and VP of finance candidate for the slate NewBU, spoke up alongside Hochberg during the meeting. After the meeting, Malka said he was personally offended by Cho’s comments.
“I felt the need to chime in because what Cho said in his address legitimately hurt me,” said Malka, a freshman in CAS. “I just needed to get that out, because you can’t have such a one-sided story when it’s something that legitimately resembles something that is extremely anti-Zionist.”
Anushka Pinto, a CAS senator, said after the meeting that the two senators’ comments were disrespectful.
“I understand that they kind of felt attacked in some regard,” said Pinto, a junior in CAS, “but it was really inappropriate for them to make those comments while he was in the middle of his address.”
Imagine how personally attacked and hurt the Hillel members would have felt if they had been escorted out of the meeting by police. Not only do they get to attend anything they want, but they get to interupt whomever they feel whenever they feel like it to say whatever they want. Must be nice to be white and privileged like that. The phrases anti-Zionist and Anti-Semitic have zero meaning anymore because people like this throw them around at any perceived micro-aggression. There are a lot of boys and girls crying wolf on campus, just saying.
Good for you Andrew Cho for speaking up about issues that affect the student body when many are trying to sweep this outrageous Hillel story under the rug. You are absolutely right that it hurts all of us when things like this happen. Imagine how the Hillel senators would feel if they were escorted out – by police- from the meeting for being “disruptive”?
Watching this story very closely. Good luck to you all, you are doing great work.
How is it an “attack” on a community for Andrew to address an issue? He wasn’t even “picking sides” or whatever
I am proud of Andrew for addressing an issue that has caused a lot of pain and unrest in the student body. It is important to his position as the Student Body President that he offer words about current events that affect students, whether campus-related or not. In fact, I believe it is integral to his position and I applaud him for bringing it up as well as sticking to his point. I am saddened that some senators sought to interrupt him or to shut down dialogue but nonetheless happy that Andrew spoke up and acted as a voice for the students.
“We wanted to ensure that we were having a safe and clear dialogue with them,” Hochberg, a senior in the Questrom School of Business, said during the meeting, “and we had no intention to cause any harm or any problem with diversity and race with that community.”
This quote from Sen. Hochberg is plainly double speak. To ensure a safe and clear dialogue requires a conversation. These students were spoken to, not by members of Hillel, but by police officers. Your fellow BU studenrs are not dangerous to your safety, regardless of their political beliefs.
We need more dialogue on campus about this issue, not less. To ensure dialogue means letting everyone speak – not people removed from a building by police (as was done to the group of pro-palestinian students), and not shouting ovef someone while they are speaking (as was done to Cho).
When students, who effectively support a regime that calls for the death your people, come into a building, there to celebrate and be sanctuary for Jews on campus, yelling and cursing, they do pose a threat. Jews on campus feel legitimately unsafe, and it is radically inappropriate of the student government to serve as a vehicle to transmit the political agenda of hate. Rather than criticizing senators hochberg and malka, you should be applauding their courage to stand up when they felt disenfranchised.
Wait what? What “regime”? and how did you make the assumption or generalization that these students support this “regime”? Also, FYI, and we are all so tired of having to explain this again and gain – the students were kicked out BEFORE that person (who is btw not a student) started yelling. He was yelling as a REACTION to be being kicked out. Although I do not personally condone the yelling it is understandable why one would be angry about being kicked out and given no reasonable answer as to why that was happening!!!!! You keep framing this conversation was if he was yelling and that’s why students were kicked out, when in fact he yelled because they were told by the police they had to leave. Lets set the record straight here.
We were not yelling and cursing. There was one person who was not a BU Student that was lumped into “our group” and who yelled and cursed after they were asked to leave.
1) This person was not at all associated with BU or any one of the rest of the students that were asked to leave.
2) This person yelled and cursed AFTER we were asked to leave. It was a reaction, not the reason we were asked out.
White privileged is a real and problematic thing within our society, and it is outright unfair to hijack the plight of people of color and blame what happened at Hillel as a case of privileged white people discriminating against people of color.
Aside from the fact that there are many people of color, Jewish and not Jewish, who regularly attend Hillel events, and that some of the people escorted out were in fact white, it is absolutely absurd and irrational to chalk that groups dismissal up to race.
Those people were escorted out because they were yelling and disruptive.
Shame on you for making it seem like anything other than such
First of all, the students assert being discriminated against based on race AND political view point, this wasn’t just about the plights of people of color although that was a huge aspect of it. Additionally, just because other students attend hillel and aren’t discriminated against doesn’t rule out all future possible instances of discrimination, particularly because these students were told they were not part of the “inner circle”. So no, the dismissal wasn’t entirely “chalked up” to race, it was also about political opinions which as you as a democrat I am sure understand are rights folks are entitled to,
Finally, no no no. Those people were not escorted out because they were yelling. They were yelling BECAUSE they were asked to leave for no good reason. Shame on YOU for reversing the order of events to fit your narrative and political agenda. Anyone and everyone can watch that entire video and see that the person affiliated with the group started yelling AFTER the cops didn’t give him any reason on why they were kicking him out. What are these blatant lies to save face? just own up and take responsibility that what happened at Hillel was a huge mistake at the very least, and an act of discrimination at most.
I am tired of people saying that we were disruptive. We were not. If you check the video recording, we were asked out after just merely sitting at a table and entering the event. After we asked out, there was one person who got up and yelled, but this was only AFTER we were already asked to leave. Also, this person was not a BU student and was not associated with any of the other people asked out.
What other reason would we be kicked out for other than most of the group’s racial background or assumed political views?
Marlo the video starts at having the cops coming in do you have footage of before that? From what I heard they did verbally assault people and were disruptive before being asked to leave by the organizers. They refused to leave and they needed to get the cops to come in since they refused to lead which is where the video starts.
Marlo, I’m just wondering how people would have known about your group’s political stance in a meeting where you were simply sitting at a table?
I find it interesting that a group of people can be identified by politics without having either already caused a disruption to make those politics known or having had a history of causing disruptions based on those politics.
Color me skeptical, but I find it rather odd that the organizers of the event, which was a private event, would have had any indication of your political views or assumed political views if you had simply just sat at a table upon entering an event. That just seems highly unlikely…
I also find it offensive that you’re using race as a justification for removal. Clearly, a group of students was asked to leave the event for causing disruption. It just so happened some of those students causing disruption were students of color. That’s not the same as being asked to leave an event because you’re a person of color. You can’t claim targeting or racial profiling when there’s cause for removal (well, you can, but that makes for a very weak argument).
If you want to use the press as a vehicle for activism, that’s cool, but be far more clever about playing the role of the victim. Anyone who spends more than two seconds thinking critically about the events can see through the gaps of your story.
The blatant lies about the order of events that Hillel affiliates keep perpetuating is just unconscionable. Can the people who recorded the video release it to the Hillel students? Are they unaware of the facts or are they just spinning the facts?
The rhetoric here says a lot about what’s going on, I think. I believe that the systematic singling out of any group or community on campus is wrong, no matter the skin color of the members in said group. Moreover, I do not believe that the answer to singling-out of groups is to single out other groups. Especially if the person singling groups out is a representative of the student body. This rhetoric is detrimental to progress, and student government will not be able to get anything done if this demonization of Hillel continues. How do you plan on establishing any common ground by demonizing your opposition? BU SG is becoming more partisan than the US Congress, and I think the only way to change this trajectory would be to retract any organized, systematic hatred towards Hillel. This situation is too complicated to explain away by “white privilege.” Clearly the information is one-sided, and it’s time to give your opposition a chance to explain itself.
REALLY? this is what is making Student Government Partisan?! Not the fact that Hillel, besides the environmental association, greek life and athletics is the ONLY faith-based organization on campus that has seats on senate? How’s THAT for partisan?
This double standard is disgusting.
I was among the students who were asked to leave. And let me make it clear that we did NOTHING to insinuate that we would cause disturbance nor did we cause any disruption before we were asked to leave.
“Those people were escorted out because they were yelling and disruptive.”
No. Before the yelling happened from a non-BU student who we were not associated with and had never met before, we entered and signed up for commitees as directed by the people there. There was food there so we helped ourselves and sat down to eat. This was all that had happened when the people already present there hurriedly went outside to chat and then brought a police officer inside to escort us out because as she put it, we were not part of “the inner circle”.
There was no indication that we were there to disturb. We acted accordingly and were just waiting for the event to start. Simply put, we came as a diverse group of brown, Muslim, Jewish, Asian BU students. Aside from our appearances, what else could have startled the people there that they needed to have police intervene to kick us out from a BU event for BU students?
Meanwhile, BUSI members have repeatedly done their best to disrupt SJP events with no consequences #whiteprivilege.
How are people here commenting that anti semetism doesn’t exist? Anti semetism exists in America as much as it ever had. On campus I have personally relieved anti semetic messages from students saying things like “I eat Jews for breakfast” and much more.
This isn’t a case of racial profiling it’s a case of misreporting by the daily free press. When a group of students verbally abuse a Hillel staff member that’s grounds to kick them out. The DFP never mentioned how a staff member being abused resulting in the kick out and the fact that they refused to leave when asked politely. After refusing to leave for a while the police were called, so it isn’t as some people think they were called for no reason. Daily free press get all the facts before you report in the future.
The Hillel senators are doing a great job representing the Jewish population and this discussion should not have been brought up by student government since it’s clearly targeting Hillel in a way that no other group has previously. Andrew should have had private dialogue with Hillel leaders instead of starting a public witchunt.
And who exactly do they claim to represent? How many Jewish students are active participants in Hillel beyond signing up for the email list? Isn’t claiming them as “constituents” fraudulent?
Where are the 15 comments listed in the article description?
Is there a Humanist senator in the Student Government, to represent Humanist students?
The Hillel Senators raised their hands. And Andrew called on them. A world of difference. And you either buy into contemporary race theory of privilege and microagressions, or you don’t. If you purport it, you can’t pick and choose when you want it to be true, or imply it applies to some minority groups and not others. And we only cry wolf when we see them closing in.
Stu Gov does NOT represent me. The only solution is taking away Hillel’s Senate Seats. Ever more, I call on Andrew to start and investigation into what happened at the event and if guilty, DEFUND HILLEL. If New BU Now wins the election then Hillel will have power over the Senate AND all of e-board. One of the other two slates must win this thing!
Just because their slate is primarily Jewish does not mean they will be controlled by Hillel. Be more respectful
Atid is quoted in this article AS A MEMBER OF NEW BU NOW AND HILLEL! He complains about anti-semitism on campus but what about Islamophobia at BU perpetrated in the SG Senate? Atid is a Trump Lover who we all know is islamophobic, xenophobic, and sexist. No wonder two women of color were impeached for their political views. Some other slate must win, I do not care who
a little haiku for all of you:
you are all insane
enough with kid politics
this does not mean s—
bye