Four Graduate School of Management students have joined the letter-writing campaign and expressed their displeasure of Chancellor John Silber’s decision to close the Boston University Academy Gay Straight Alliance.

Instead of addressing a letter to Silber, Mark Donahue, one of the letter’s signatories, said they would instead appeal to Board of Trustees Chairman Richard B. DeWolfe, as the CFA students did in their petition.

Donahue, who is the president and secretary of the Gay and Lesbian Business Council (GLBC), an organization of graduate MBA students, said he was outraged from the beginning when he heard of the GSA’s elimination. He said he decided action was needed to express their opposition.

‘When Chancellor Silber decided to abolish the GSA, I had a very strong reaction I thought it was so totalitarian and he was acting unilaterally,’ Donahue said. ‘I couldn’t find any proof that he was acting on behalf of the university and that’s why we wrote this letter to the chairman.’

Donahue said Silber’s elimination of the academy’s organization reminded him of when he was involved with sending a letter to then-President Jon Westling in 2001, asking for sexual orientation to be added to the university’s non-discrimination clause. Westling eventually declined the request in a seven-page letter addressed to then-Student Union President Jennifer Sutherland.

Donahue said he began to look into the bylaws of the university, which he said indicated that the president and chancellor of the school are selected by the Board of Trustees. At that time, Donahue decided members from GSOM should pen a letter to the Board’s chairman.

In one paragraph, the students appeal to the Board of Trustees to examine Silber’s comments and ask them if they will continue to support such statements.

‘Chancellor Silber’s recent (and past) comments indicate that Boston University is intolerant of its gay and lesbian students. By banning Boston University Academy’s Gay-Straight Student Alliance, Boston University fosters a culture of antagonism and animosity towards all of its gay and lesbian students. We wonder if Chancellor Silber’s actions were unilateral and we question the Board of Trustee’s [sic] support for his actions.’

Eric Santamaria, another signatory of the letter, said even though the elimination of the organization happened at BU Academy, the members of the GLBC still wanted to do something to help.

‘We felt being part of BU’s graduate program that this is something that affected us not directly, but it is something that secondarily affects us,’ Santamaria said. ‘If the kids at the Academy are being discriminated against, we’re not far off.’

Much as the School of Law students did previously, the GSOM students indicated within their letter they were the ‘future business leaders and future Boston University alumni,’ they would ‘have a choice of which organizations to support with both our time and our money.’

‘Please be advised that the removal of Boston University Academy’s Gay-Straight Student Alliance will greatly influence our decision in all of these matters,’ they wrote in the letter.

Donahue said the students also requested the letter be presented at the next meeting of the Board of Trustees and that each member receive a copy.

Silber’s statements have now made Donahue reconsider his decision to attend graduate school at BU, he said.

‘I could have gone to any of them but when I thought of BU, I thought it had a strong commitment to social justice,’ Donahue said. ‘I don’t find Chancellor Silber’s actions representative of this university and don’t know if he has the full support of the Board of Trustees.’

While Donahue took time out to write this letter with Santamaria, Gregory Ciaglo, and Jonathan Aspell, he said he did not think of himself as an ‘activist.’

‘I’m not an activist or someone who drapes himself with a rainbow,’ Donahue said. ‘But this provoked something in me and caused a reaction in me.’

Donahue said he was unsure if the students would hear back from the Board of Trustees.

‘I don’t know if this letter will have any effect, but it’s something I had to do for myself,’ he said.