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.”