Chancellor John Silber is not the enemy. At least, he’s not the enemy Boston University students should be fighting, because John Silber is not going to change.
After retaking the reins from President Westling over the summer, Silber has taken strides to irritate and infuriate many members of the student and faculty bodies. In just one semester, he has dissolved the BU Academy’s Gay-Straight Alliance, made remarks that insulted the university’s female students and pledged to increase our already large class sizes by refusing to hire new faculty. At every opportunity, he has proven himself incapable of satisfying the groups he has been selected to lead. Boston University is certainly not a democracy, but its citizens are entitled to a leader who is dedicated to making their educational experiences as fulfilling and pleasant as possible.
This semester, our chancellor has been not only controversial, but also ineffective. At the times when this university most needed a strong leader, he failed to take charge. Where was Dr. Silber when it was revealed that homosexual men throughout the city were coming to BU to solicit sex in our bathrooms? What has he done to speed up the perpetually delayed construction projects that are consuming our campus? Silber never hesitates to take action against students, but fails to emerge when we need him to serve on our behalf.
No amount of student rallies, petitions or letters to the editor of the Free Press are going to change Silber’s ways. He has reached a point in his life where he does not have to be concerned about career stability. He can make unpopular decisions and irritate the student body, knowing that few consequences will fall upon him. As he has stated in the past, Silber does not answer to students our dissatisfaction with his policies are irrelevant to this administration.
But there is hope. While Silber may seem to operate unsupervised, he is not all-powerful. The true governance of Boston University sits in the hands of the Board of Trustees. It was these individuals who brought John Silber to Boston in 1971, and it was they who asked him to step up and assume duties as president once again this summer. While Silber may make the day-to-day decisions, he still answers to the Board of Trustees, and it is only through this group that any true change will come about.
Silber’s retirement is long overdue. He’s made many contributions to this university, but no longer contributes to the success and well-being of students and faculty. Boston University needs a more flexible leader someone who will understand and appreciate the needs of the entire community.
While I respect Silber’s scholarly achievements, his philosophy degrees do not necessarily make him a strong administrator. A leader’s academic accomplishments are not nearly as important as his proven effectiveness within the leadership position. John Silber is a brilliant man and a very capable professor, but he is out of touch with the community over which he presides. I suggest that the students and groups currently trying to amend Silber’s policies instead focus on convincing the trustees to grant him his retirement.
While Silber may be a man of philosophy and base his decisions on claims of moral responsibility, the trustees are concerned with only one factor money. If students and alumni wish to see changes at BU, they need to pledge to hit the trustees where it will hurt: in the University’s endowment fund. It has been encouraging throughout the semester to see many alumni pledge not to give money to BU until Silber is removed from a position of power. The trustees may not care about student opinion anymore than Silber does, but if that endowment continues to shrink, you can be sure they will seek out someone to blame. With Westling out of the way, there will be no one left to blame but Silber himself.
Those who label withholding donations to BU as selfish are ignorant to the necessity of such pledges. Rather, withholding donations is a selfless act from individuals who realize the potential of Boston University to be a magnificent school but recognize that this potential cannot be fulfilled with ineffective leadership. If alumni contributions dwindle, there will inevitably be some future students who will suffer from the lack of university funding. But this pales in comparison to the number of students who will thrive at Boston University once the trustees dismiss Silber from power.
I’m grateful to Boston University to the brilliant faculty who’ve devoted their time to improving my education and to the majority of university staff who have been pleasant and helpful throughout my time here. Once I graduate, I’m confident that the skills I’ve developed here at BU will help me to build a successful career. But I join the many current alumni in pledging that as long as John Silber remains in power, and the current university policies stay in place, Boston University will not receive an extra dime of my money. If enough students make similar pledges and the university’s endowment continues to shrink, I believe that we will be able to force changes that will benefit all current and future members of the BU community.
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