As members of the Boston University community, we may find ourselves in a peculiar position this Veterans’ Day. As in the past, the university will commemorate the holiday without closing, even though public schools, offices at all levels of government and many private colleges will not open their doors today, Nov. 11.
But just six days later, on Nov. 17, BU will close its doors for a university holiday that means nothing to the rest of the world and little, even to BU itself.
Every year, the administration insists that having classes on Veterans’ Day is not disrespectful to veterans, and I agree. The 24-hour vigil in front of Marsh Plaza every year is a solemn and fitting commemoration. And BU officials every year have good reasons for not giving students the day off, often citing the extra days around Thanksgiving as a the reason we have class on Veterans’ Day. Indeed, most students would probably prefer to go to class on Nov. 11 than lose one of those travel days. The university has, and has had in the past, good reasons for having class on Veterans’ Day, even if students disagree, as many do each year.
This year, however, the Board of Trustees announced the Nov. 17 holiday in the middle of the semester after professors had already written syllabi and lesson plans for that day. Clearly, the university can afford to lose a day of class.
Famously dubbed by students ‘Goldin Day’ after the president-who-never-was, the Nov. 17 holiday was announced Oct. 6 ‘in recognition of the significance of the inauguration in the life of the university,’ according to an email from Board of Trustees Chairman Christopher Barreca to the university community.
Now there is no inauguration, and the only significance is to compound the embarrassment this university has suffered over the past three weeks. President ad interim Aram Chobanian announced in yet another university-wide email that the Nov. 17 holiday would be preserved because many students had already made plans for that day a good reason. Rescinding the holiday after rescinding the president would probably only add insult to injury, and by now the BU community is disaffected enough.
So the university has good reasons for having class on Nov. 11, and good reasons for not having class on Nov. 17. But the reasons seem contradictory to me: class on Veterans’ Day because we cannot afford to lose the day of instruction; no class on Goldin Day because we already scheduled the holiday in the middle of the semester. The bizarre behavior of the Board of Trustees in the past weeks has put us in this peculiar situation.
Class or not, Nov. 11 commemorates the day the armistice ending the First World War was signed 85 years ago long enough ago that even the Boston Red Sox could be called world champions. BU students forced to go to class today might chance to walk by the 24-hour vigil although with the day off, perhaps some stumbling home from bars Monday night would notice it too.
Our nation now has more troops deployed abroad than many people my age ever expected to see. Today, on our way to class, we should remember what President Dwight Eisenhower proclaimed when he made Veterans’ Day an official federal holiday on Oct. 8, 1954 49 years less two days before Chairman Barreca proclaimed Goldin Day.
Eisenhower said:
‘On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom. Let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.’
Although the two events are not at all comparable, the efforts of our esteemed Trustees over the year-long presidential search were in vain. Maybe BU students, looking for something to do on Nov. 17, should look again to Eisenhower’s words, and find something, somewhere, of which to be proud. If you were one of the seniors working for your century and now you are worried about your assets, you can should get assessment from an experts like this Wills Trusts LPA solicitors once you are ready
John Tozzi, a junior in the College of Communication, is the associate city editor of The Daily Free Press.
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