Marchers frustrated with BU cynicism

I was one of the organizers of the so-called “desperate attempt” to relive the glory days of the 1960s, as the Free Press so keenly observed in “A march for activism” (April 17). There is no Vietnam War nor an anti-war movement to galvanize the majority of students at Boston University to action, but there are many extremely important issues that concern our school directly. We called the “Day of Action” out of frustration. It is no hidden fact that our administration consistently ignores the concerns of the student body. Things as trivial as cutting the football team and denying on-campus students access to cable to issues as pressing as the lack of a rape crisis center to the administration’s continual rejection of a sexual orientation clause in the anti-discrimination policy all stem from the fact that we as students have no voice in the decision making process at our school. The reasons we had a rally with “so many concerns” is because most of our concerns could be solved if only we could have a student voice on campus.

You urge us to be like other activists who make real progress through proposals and meeting with administrators. Well, the Women’s Center has been working with the administration for 20 years to get a much needed rape crisis center. What have they got for all of their hard work? Nothing. Their demands have been consistently ignored and made illegitimate by the administration.

It seems that the non-discrimination clause struggle might be as fruitless when dealing with an administration as stubborn as ours. We have all tried working with the administration on these issues, and we have all been ignored. We have even elected two activist slates to the Student Union, but through no fault of their own, they have proved largely ineffective because of the lack of funding for the Union and a lack of open dialogue with the administration.

I was pleased with the turnout of Thursday’s protest. I would have liked a majority of students to participate, but at BU that does not seem possible. It is not because of student apathy, it is cynicism. It is a cynicism fostered by our administration that is a large part of the problem at BU. Why even try to make change when you know you will be ignored? It is time to change that. You don’t have to agree with what we have to say but don’t criticize us for trying to make a real change at BU on our own terms. Don’t criticize us for trying to bring a little idealism to the cynical world of BU.

COM ’01