Bravo Silber!

By Darren J. Lipomi CAS ’05

There was an excellent program offered last night at the School of Management Auditorium about which I want to share my enthusiasm. I would like to offer this congratulations to (and preemptive defense of) President Silber for his question-and-answer session last night. I feel the need to write this because I know that many of my peers irrationally hate this man with a characteristic, college-age passion for youthful passion’s own sake, and that my letter will reach the desk of the Free Press coupled to an overwhelming majority of editorials professing unreasonable disdain for a man who, quite honestly, they have never seen and have never met. I entered the hall expecting only to be amused, and exited feeling like Gulliver–my cynicism sharpened and my misanthropy augmented toward a few belligerent and unyielding peers who went to satisfy their lust for Silber-hate. To be fair to the crowd, the most enthusiastic applause came when Dr. Silber corrected a rather egregious error by the Free Press (“rot” v. “riot” in a now infamous misquotation about the gust policy) and again when he affirmed that his middle initial was “R” and not “E”, as was stated in the reprehensible introduction prepared by the Student Union. (As my friend Greg Mazzaro points out, the error begs the question whether or not his middle initial was needed for the introduction; I mean, he wasn’t winning an award, and we all knew who we were seeing, right?) During an embarrassing look-at-me-I’m-full-of-rage outburst after the final applause, someone shouted that questions were too “tame.” Silber concurred, and exited the stage with dignity. Indeed the questions were tame, and Silber dissected their irrelevancies and factual assertions with precision. He stated, obviously of course, that the BU Campus sacrifices beauty for its proximity to Boston’s great cultural opportunities, and that Warren Towers was here before he arrived as President. I had never seen Dr. Silber speak before, and I can say honestly that I have a new confidence in my University and its administration. Let the dissenters dissent. I urge anyone even remotely interested to attend this event in the future. Bravo Boston University!