Chris Coval LAW ’04

The petition sent to John Silber on October 1st from LAW students condemning Silber’s alleged “intolerable display of bigotry” does not represent my views. Law students, more than other students, ought to be skeptical of such blanket statements. John Silber is attempting to cut 25 million dollars from the school’s budget in order to fund important projects like the Student Village (and hopefully a new law school). It is in this context that his decision to stop funding a high school, homosexual program must be evaluated. The program is clearly redundant in light of mandatory sex education and student counseling services. There is no further need to bring sex into the classroom, and no problem or sexual issue that cannot be handled by either of these other programs.

So why should the university waste money on a redundant program? The answer of course is “political correctness.” It simply is not politically correct to stop funding a gay and lesbian program for any reason whatsoever. The fact that John Silber does not care about being politically correct infuriates overly sensitive students, but this is exactly what makes him a great University President. Silber’s vision is not one of political expediency, but of long term commitment to intellectual rigor. John may be many things, but he is is not a push-over. Threats of refusing to support BU after graduation or of steering students elsewhere is the kind of intimidation that will certainly get no response from John Silber. Law school is about reasoned argument and thoughtful debate, politically correct bullying has no place at BU school of law. Therefore, from the LAW letter criticizing John Silber on this issue, I respectfully dissent.