More than 30 students congregated at Marsh Plaza and the George Sherman Union Tuesday afternoon to protest the impeachment of two Executive Board members of the Boston University Student Government, a decision that was reached by the Senate Monday night.
Students in support of the movement, called “BU Students Against Silence,” then sat at the entrance to the GSU with duct tape on their mouths and held posters with phrases such as “Freedom of speech is listening” and “End political censorship.”
The Boston University SG Vice President of Finance Kimberly Barzola and the VP of Internal Affairs Marwa Sayed were impeached at Monday’s Senate meeting on charges that they failed to meet their “constitutionally mandated tasks,” according to a letter sent out by the SG Judicial Commission Friday, Oct. 30.
BU Students Against Silence protested the decision because they believe the impeachments took place due to the views of the former SG members, several protesters explained. Members of the group walked through the GSU and Marsh Plaza chanting, “What do you do when you’re under attack? Stand up. Fight Back. Hey hey. Ho ho. Student Government’s got to go.”
"This racist student government has got to go" #BUStudentsAgainstSilence protests unfair @BUStudentGov impeachment pic.twitter.com/JMBVe1RTSW
— JVP Boston (@JVPBoston) November 10, 2015
40 students sitting outside BU student union, protesting unfair impeachment of 2 senators #BUStudentsAgainstSilence pic.twitter.com/lZmILQvTL5
— Liza Behrendt (@lizaveta9) November 10, 2015
Several students shared their views on Twitter through the hashtag #BUStudentsAgainstSilence. Additionally, a Twitter poll posted by The Daily Free Press Monday night showed that out of 306 voters at press time, 25 percent percent agree with the decision to impeach Sayed and Barzola, while 75 percent disagree.
.@BUStudentGov Senate impeached two members of its executive board. Do you agree with the decision?
— The Daily Free Press (@dailyfreepress) November 10, 2015
Several students who participated in the rally spoke out the against the impeachment.
Marlo Kalb, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and a rally participant, said the group was made up of students who were outraged by the impeachment decisions.
“So yes, they were impeached based on neglecting their duties but would we have seen this even happen or this trial even happen if they didn’t have those false discriminatory claims? No,” she said. “ … We are calling for a restructuring and a dismantling of Student Government.”
Kalb said the group plans to take more direct action in the future.
“We are going to keep up the momentum,” she said. “We are going to keep doing this.”
https://twitter.com/feminedge/status/663944299588009984
Supporting #BUStudentsAgainstSilence as last night Stu Gov decided that maintaining status quo trumps representing the student body's needs
— ??? (@lleblanc_) November 10, 2015
Melanie Kirsh, a senior in the CAS, said she joined the rally because of the bias and lack of transparency she said she saw in the BU Student Government.
“There was a huge cover-up of political disagreements that have occurred … you can’t find them now,” she said. “ … You can’t find it so the evidence no longer exists, so the only evidence they had was this person wasn’t doing their job and they are just interpreting the constitution, and it’s like, who made the constitution? [The original complaint letter was asserting] that there were anti-Semitic comments when, from my perspective, it was just sharing support of peace in Palestine, but then people equate that to anti-Semitism.”
Sofya Bazhanova, a sophomore in CAS and onlooker to the rally, said she hadn’t heard much about the issue before seeing the protest.
“I didn’t really understand what it is,” she said, “but I’m definitely certain that I want to look into it more and understand what’s going on.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misinterpreted Melanie Kirsh’s quote about the claims of the original letter. She was not referring to the complaints made at Monday’s Senate meeting.
