Chancellor John Silber: It seems that your ship is sinking and you have done nothing to stop it. “Sir, the flooding has put out the fires!” I cannot bring myself to understand the positions that you take as a scholar nor as a leader.
Since your cavalier disbanding of the BUA GSA, you have made no apparent effort to create consensus on a campus that was lacking it to begin with. As a senior in the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program here at BU, I should hope that I have been exposed to a fair degree of leadership and management training. I fail to witness any and all of those qualities in the way that you attempt to lead this student body and faculty.
Here are five reasons for leader derailment: insensitivity, aloofness, betrayal of trust, overly ambitious behavior and over-managing. They come from my textbook as part of a leadership and management course. I mention them now because I feel that you have fallen victim to all of them.
The level of insensitivity that you displayed with regard to the BUA GSA was abominable. With only a vague explanation of a mission statement and a cursory rebuttal to criticism, you took the GSA away. It is near criminal for a person with your credentials to eschew any form of dialogue with the individuals over whom you wield such uncompromising power. People’s aspirations do not lie on a piece of paper that says, “We uphold the rights of all individuals regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation etc.” There is no substance in that. If I were you, I would have tried to compromise, or at the very least make my argument convincing to more people than just myself.
I think I saw you walking through the George Sherman Union one day in the beginning of the year. Were those bodyguards surrounding you, or your court magistrates? Either way, how can you say that you are connected to this university? In the Navy, they always say, “Know your people.” Not only does it seem that you do not know us, but based on your actions and statements, it seems that your assumption is that because we are undergraduates, we therefore cannot possibly have the experience or intelligence that you possess.
While most of us cannot claim to be Kantian scholars, we do possess a great degree of youthful energy and creativity that you have repeatedly failed to harness. Once more, many feel stifled and sandbagged at every turn, as I am quite certain the members of the GSA felt when you gave them the boot.
The remaining three reasons for leader derailment I will leave to you to examine carefully. There will be a test next week, so be sure to study.
As the most visible member of the Boston University leadership, you have earned failing marks in one last respect. You have failed to provide us with an attainable vision for the future and you have failed to inspire or motivate at least one person. As far as I, and many of my colleagues, can see, your vision for the future of BU is to provide work for as many construction workers as possible for the next 10 years. That is fine. But where do the students fit in that picture? Are we simply units to fill the dorm space and pay tuition, or are we individuals with dreams and ideas for the future? Have we not put a certain amount of credence and belief into BU as an institution based on hard work and professionalism? Is the tuition that we pay not a sign of our good faith in you as leader, an inspiring motivator?
Some would agree. Do you?