Maybe my own research and studies have been trained me to look beyond initial impressions and seek underlying motivations. Or perhaps it is much simpler: that because I live off Boston University’s campus, many controversial campus issues (guest policies, for instance) do not directly affect me. But in this country, we hold dear the doctrine that every person deserves a fair trial and a rigorous defense — I volunteer to present BU Chancellor John Silber’s.
It must first be said that the journalistic integrity of The Daily Free Press was compromised when it printed just a snippet from Chancellor Silber’s Sept. 20, 2002 University Professors lecture. While the selection was accurate, there was so much more — I was at the lecture, which lasted about an hour and was followed by another hour of questions. As easy as it is to lie with statistics, it is even easier to lie with quotes taken out of context. The Daily Free Press entered with a bias instead of honest, fair and opinion-free reporting of the facts. While no one expects everyone to agree with all that Chancellor Silber or anyone else says or does, we should at least all take the time to hear his reasoning. Otherwise, how can we honestly expect more courtesy than we give?
As any psychology student can surmise, virtually all actions are somehow rooted in experience and personality. Yet no one, it seems, has remembered to ask about Chancellor Silber’s personal involvement with the issues about which he feels so strongly. To be clear, I am not suggesting that the chancellor should feel obligated to divulge his personal life. But imagine how embarrassed and ashamed we all feel if, after donning “Fire Silber” pins, we found out that his life had been touched personally, and not just bureaucratically, by everything being publicly and hotly debated. It might be easier to empathize with his perspectives if we could contextualize them.
There is an edict in rabbinical Judaism that reads: “Do not whiten the face of your friend in public.” In other words, do everything possible to avoid public embarrassment. Because the relationships that I have formed with members of the BU faculty and administration are so positive and friendly, I find it genuinely disturbing when the students bash them without even knowing them. I am curious, how many Daily Free Press readers or writers have actually met John Silber and spoken to him personally? I did recently, and found that even though his unquestionably conservative political views can be hard to circumnavigate in a modern liberal university, he is a very pleasant, brilliant man one-on-one.
To some degree, I fear that the heat cast upon Chancellor Silber has less to do with the man and more to do with the office. The Student Body wants to see change, and in his position he can seem like the first sentinel guard. But I can personally testify to the fact that not only is Chancellor Silber approachable and responsive when one demonstrates an effort, but Boston University is full of extraordinary and inspirational educators who are actually here because they love what they do.
It might be a jagged pill to swallow, but we should collectively reflect on Chancellor Silber’s actions and inactions over the past several months. Can we find any positive element, any intimation of a carefully thought out plan that may have been as successful as it was distressing?
In 1990, Chancellor Silber ran for the Massachusetts gubernatorial seat. He is no stranger to politics and undoubtedly holds dear the United States Constitution, including the first amendment guarantees of the right to peaceable assembly and the right to petition. Even though we do not always realize it, those are just the rights the students of Boston University have been exercising. And they have been becoming good, productive, contributive citizens in the process. In his own incendiary way, Chancellor Silber has spurred the discussion of many thorny issues on campus, inspiring a large sector of the Boston University community to activism. He has used one of the largest private universities in the country as an incubator of democratic idealism and, with the recent passage of the guest policy amendments, helped us see that with ambition and commitment the system really does work.
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