More than 100 Boston University faculty members assembled Wednesday afternoon at a two-hour faculty forum to discuss the controversy surrounding the Board of Trustees and President-elect Daniel S. Goldin.
According to Faculty Council Chair Herbert Voigt, the majority of the faculty members voiced outrage over the lack of information regarding the Trustees’ Executive Committee vote of ‘no confidence’ for Goldin, given on Friday. The full board will vote this Friday on whether to allow him to become president on Saturday as planned.
‘I think that it was important to let the faculty get together and share their outrage, and that was accomplished,’ Voigt said. ‘They wished there was a way to let the board know that this is not the opinions of nine people but of many people within the community.’
Voigt said the forum, which was closed to the public, was simply a conversation about issues not a call for action because no motions or votes occurred.
According to Voigt, faculty members at the forum spoke out both for and against Goldin.
‘Some of those who spoke said they questioned Goldin’s authoritative leadership reputation at NASA,’ he said. ‘Others said he has already had an influence on Boston University in our contract for the new bio [laboratory].’
Computer science professor Peter Gacs, who said he attended to become more informed, said the general consensus indicated that professors feel helpless.
‘The faculty has not been in the processes,’ he said. ‘Everyone talked about their feeling of impotence. Many spoke out over their dismay about the last minute resolution of the Board of Trustees. It is still important to have a word and know what is going on.’
The Faculty Council Executive Committee has scheduled a special meeting Monday to meet with one of the trustees, Modern Foreign Languages Department Associate Director James Iffland said.
‘Some members of the Faculty Council seem pleased that a member of the Board of Trustees is going to meet with them next week,’ Iffland said. ‘My understanding is that it is Dexter Dodge. The only problem is the meeting will happen after the Halloween vote. At that point there is nothing that can be done.’
Dodge did not return phone calls Tuesday night.
Iffland said the meeting demonstrated the faculty’s dismay.
‘As a former chair of the Faculty Council, I feel that it is almost a tragedy that the faculty has been made to feel so impotent with respect to the way this university is run,’ he said. ‘That feeling of impotence was glaringly present in the meeting today.’
Iffland, a spokesperson for the Faculty Committee for the Future of Boston University a new group unaffiliated with the Faculty Council that started a petition opposing the board’s actions said he found the forum constructive.
‘I was proud of my fellow faculty members and how they expressed their views on the current crisis,’ he said. ‘People have obviously given it much thought. They are clearly upset with the actions of the Board of Trustees. Perhaps much of the meeting could be described as a catharsis.’
Writing program instructor Christina Michaud, who did not attend the forum, said many of her colleagues are afraid to speak out.
‘The whole presidency is a touchy issue among the faculty,’ she said. ‘Everyone lowers their voice when speaking about it. The problem is we don’t really know what is going on and don’t know what the outcome will be.’
Iffland said many faculty members at the forum supported a letter the Faculty Council’s Executive Committee drafted Monday night.
‘Those present backed the spirit of the statement … However, it remains to be seen whether it will have any impact whatsoever,’ he said.
Gacs said he appreciated the Executive Committee’s letter but also remained skeptical about its potential effect.
‘I don’t know what the letter will achieve since it is clear they are not part of the discussion,’ he said. ‘It looks to me that the council and the faculty are trying to be responsible, but the Trustees will not necessarily listen.’
Voigt said it was a shame the board does not include the Faculty Council in its deliberations.
‘We recognize that due to the structure, we don’t have a say,’ he said. ‘However, I can’t help but feel that the Trustees are missing a great chance to get the body of the faculty with them.’
Iffland called the letter was a ‘brave statement’ but had more praise for his group’s petition.
‘Personally I feel that the online petition is a much stronger way of making the views of the community known,’ he said. ‘Already having over 1,200 signatures on the petition is much more likely to have an effect than a statement by the Executive Committee on a faculty body that has been systematically ignored by the central administration and the Board of Trustee for nearly three decades.’
The faculty committee’s online petition received more than 2,250 signatures since the site was launched Monday afternoon, according to website’s counter which does not seem to track whether people enter real names or sign repeatedly.
‘We’re very pleased by the initial results of the petition especially considering that we had some initial technical glitches that we have solved,’ Iffland said. ‘Considering that the glitches were only worked out of the system by yesterday afternoon, the fact we are already well over a 1,000 in just a few hours is a clear statement of how the BU community feels.’
Iffland said that if Goldin is not installed this weekend, the faculty committee which includes at least four professors, according to the petition website will plan a public protest on Nov. 17.
‘If faculty and students are told simply to show up at class on Nov. 17, as if nothing had happened, an appropriate response by those faculty and students who are upset at actions taken by the board would be to boycott classes,’ he said. ‘Perhaps we could have a ceremony of some sort, commemorating the ludicrous travesty that had been committed by the Board of Trustees on Halloween. Nov. 17 would be a great day to renew the tradition of rallies had on Marsh Plaza, where sits the monument of our greatest alumnus, [Martin Luther King Jr.].’
Before the forum, history professor Ezra Mendelsohn said he signed the petition and is ‘very upset.’
‘This is not the kind of publicity a university wants,’ he said. ‘The petition is a very legitimate form of protest. The board needs a message from the faculty a message that says we don’t like what’s going on.’
Sandra Diieso, the senior administrator of the Special Education Program in the School of Education, said she did not feel comfortable signing the petition.
‘We don’t have enough facts to make judgments … We hear a lot of rumors and a lot of stories going around,’ she said. ‘I wish the board would shed some light on the situation. So many things are spinning around our head. We are all waiting with baited breaths to see what happens on Friday.’
Gacs said the faculty should be careful not to act rashly.
‘We should not make recommendations based on our embarrassment,’ he said. ‘It is unfortunate that the majority of the faculty feels the way it does, but really the question is who will be the next president of Boston University and what kind of person should take that position of power?’
Voigt said he thinks Goldin is well-qualified for the presidency and hopes he will be installed.
‘Everything Goldin said that I have heard has been on target,’ he said. ‘I have been thoroughly impressed with his comments to the students and faculty and community members.’
School of Management professor James Post called the issue ‘terribly damaging to the university.’
‘I and my colleagues are very sad and disgusted,’ he said. ‘Even if we don’t directly feel the effects of this issue, we will feel the repercussions. The ripple effect will be that your degree from BU will be worth less.’
According to Post, only the Board of Trustees can rectify the situation.
‘The struggle right now is who to have confidence in,’ he said. ‘The Trustees are supposed to be stalwarts for the entire institution.’
Post said the Massachusetts government could step in if the situation gets too out of control.
‘Someone needs to be watching over this,’ he said. ‘When the officials in the institution can not handle its own business, it is the job of public officials to step in. I have no doubt the Attorney General is watching this very careful.’
A spokesman for Attorney General Tom Reilly’s office confirmed that the office has the power to overrule the BU Board of Trustees and has stepped in during past conflicts with universities.
‘Most universities are public charities,’ spokesman Corey Welford said. ‘The attorney general has jurisdiction over all public charities.’
Welford would not commend on whether Reilly is investigating the Goldin dispute.