On the one-year anniversary of President George Bush’s reelection Wednesday, Boston University students and faculty participated in a nationwide walk-out in protest of the War in Iraq.
The walk-out, which centralized on Boston Common for residents in the Boston area, was endorsed by many liberal figures, including activist Cindy Sheehan, Noam Chomsky and BU professor emeritus Howard Zinn.
Many groups at BU endorsed the event as well, including the Peace and Justice Project, a student group at the university. PJP member Maura Jacob said the group’s members choose which political causes to support.
“It’s a group that works on peace and social justice issues, it’s non-partisan,” the College of Arts and Sciences junior said. “It has a different agenda depending on who the members are – we kind of work on the campaigns that the members feel the strongest about.”
Jacob said members of the group participated in the walk-out because they felt that more students should become more aware of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
According to Jacob, BU students walked out of class at noon and met on the Boston Common at 2 p.m. where they united for a common cause.
School of Law professor David Lyons said he endorsed the walk-out as a member of BU Faculty for a Humane Foreign Policy group because the situation in Iraq aligns with controversial previous U.S. conflicts, including World War I and Vietnam.
“There’s a very important tradition in America of criticism,” he said. Political science professor John Gerring also supported the walk-out as a member of the faculty group and encouraged students to participate.
“I thought it was important that we do something at BU and that faculty take a stand,” he said. “To me it seems like one of many ways of expressing an opinion on this issue. It’s another tool of getting the public to be more aware of what is going on in Iraq.”
Gerring said the walk-out’s main purpose was to garner support in opposing the Iraq occupation.
“The goals of the event were to start a movement against the war and get the U.S. to commit to the timetable of withdrawal,” he said. “I don’t think we are a productive force there anymore. … I am not advocating total withdrawal from Iraq but I do think this U.S.-sponsored occupation is not working.”
Political Science professor Christine Rossell offered an alternative to the walk-out for her students, College of Arts and Sciences junior Jon Marker said.
“[She gave] us an opportunity to voice our opinion about it,” said Marker, the Student Union president. “[She said] we’re going to open class up, have a symposium, let you ask questions. It will be a good productive way to air some of BU’s concerns.”
Marker said he appreciated the opportunity to discuss the Iraq conflict in an academic setting.
“It was an incredibly productive way to address our concerns,” he said. “Walk-outs generate a lot of intensity, but you really just want to get people talking. We had a great opportunity to sit in class and talk about it. The class was as full as it ever was. The one difference was there were a lot more people voicing their opinions. A lot more people have an opinion about the Iraq War than just normal class topics.”
The symposium was successful because it integrated opinions with relevant concerns, Marker said.
“I thought it was great because it addressed the concerns,” he said. “It got people thinking and talking about the issues. I was very happy to see that alternative.”
Members of PJP also gathered Wednesday before the walk-out in support of protesting the construction of a Biosafety Level 4 lab in the BU community, which will study biological weapons, Jacob said.
There are already labs in Texas, Montana and Georgia, Jacob said. However, it is possible to stop the construction if there is enough public voice.
“It’s really dependent upon whether or not people speak in opposition to it,” she said. “I know that in California they attempted to build one, but the faculty and students gathered together before the grant was given to them and really showed their opposition. The university felt it wasn’t in their interest to comply with the government because the student body and faculty members were so opposed.”
Student opposition is strong against the lab, PJP member and CAS junior David Sapienza said. This is mostly because the university agreed to the government grant without consulting the community.
“That in general just says that BU is a university like any other university and they want prestige,” he said. “But the fact that they so ignored the community … and the government refused to talk to them.”
Jacob said the building of the new lab will be one of the newest additions to the Department of Homeland Security’s facilities.
“[The biolab] is another aspect of Bush’s agenda to ‘stop terrorism’ that is in fact neglecting the effects of the war at home,” she said. “It’s taking money away from public health and public services, and putting it towards an issue that maybe does not deserve it.”
Many people say they oppose the building of the lab because of the possibility of an outbreak or accident involving one of the many biological weapons that the lab will study, Jacob said.
“It’s important for BU to be aware of these issues,” she said, “because as a university, the government does many different projects on our campus, and we interact with them on a regular basis.”
DFP staff writer Jean Bentley contributed to this report.
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