Members of the Boston University Men’s Ice Hockey Task Force set plans to hold a public forum to solicit feedback from the community, according to an email sent to students Monday.
BU Trustee Jonathan Cole and Provost Jean Morrison, co-chairs of the task force, stated in the email a meeting would take place Wednesday at 4 p.m. In the Sargent Auditorium. Members will listen to input and suggestions, the email said.
“Members of the task force will be present at the Open Forums to listen to BU community input on issues that are relevant to the climate and culture of men’s hockey,” the email said.
A second open forum is set to take place April 23 at 4 p.m. in Room 101 of the Kenmore Classroom Building.
Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore will moderate the sessions, and attendees will be expected to adhere to the guidelines for participation, the email said. The specific guidelines have not been announced at this time.
In addition to the open forums, the task force established a website to digitally receive written comments and said they welcomed community members to write letters with any input.
“Gathering information from the Boston University community is an essential part of our efforts,” the email said. “Thus, we write to invite members of the BU community to provide relevant information and to describe the ways in which to do so.”
The email said anonymous comments were welcome, but comments with attributed information are preferred.
“Because the task force may wish to explore a particular matter in more detail, we may seek additional information from individuals who have provided attributed input,” the email said.
Task force members are operating confidentially and will not comment on their investigation.
David Glover, a graduate student in Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said he did not like the task force singling out the hockey team for investigation.
“I would like them to involve all the Division I sports at this school because I think isolating the hockey team is biased and is not really getting at the actual problem,” he said. “The students [in Division I sports] are not just students, they’re student-athletes and with that comes different privileges.”
School of Management junior Ben Feder said the open forums were definitely a productive idea.
“They’re doing a good job for what they can do,” he said. “Some places might ignore it and pretend it’s not happening, but BU is taking a proactive approach to prevent any further incidents to the best of their abilities.”
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Erin Shibley said she did not believe the task force would work.
“I understand they formulated this task force for the reason of looking at rape culture in the hockey team, but I don’t really agree with that,” she said. “I think that’s stereotyping everyone on the hockey team . . . It’s a waste of time and resources.”
She said addressing the problem was men’s hockey coach Jack Parker’s responsibility.
While Shibley said she doesn’t agree with the task force’s focus, she still thinks student involvement is important.
“I feel like a lot of people or a lot of victims or people who know about things are not going to go forth with accusations or information unless it’s anonymously,” she said. “This is kind of being active in trying to get people to come forward.”
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This “task force” is a joke…
As an alum I wish we could get involved. I am a 47 year fan of the program and feel that I have a good idea of what might be the problem. I do not believe that many of the players have enough class work to keep them busy. How they have the time to get drunk and chase women during the week and keek up a full academic load is beyond my understanding. When I was in school I road the train after late afternoon class to my part time job. With me many times was a BU Hockey star also going to work. I am sure he was tired after taking the T back to practice and then back to his dorm at a very late hour. I understand now that practice interfers with class time in some cases. Mr Parker has been a great coach but I think he has lost the drection the program has been on for a long time. This drinking problem has been going on for over ten years and these problems of the past year are not the only ones involving police action. Something should have been done a long time ago. Get one of the assistant coaches to live on campus and check on the guys if it can be done. I fear the harm done to the program as I remain a great BU Hockey fan and really worry about the future.