Boston University’s Student Government held a meeting Monday discussing a rise in doxxing across BU’s campus because of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas and speaking about BU Graduate Workers Union’s new contract.
Dhruv Kapadia, a senior in College of Arts and Sciences and the student body president, said some students approached others overseeing a Palestine Children’s Relief Fund table and openly filmed them and took pictures.
“We’ve seen it with a few students that there have been videos taken that have gone on the internet and received millions of views,” Kapadia said. “Those students, their families, their home addresses, everything about their personal information has been put on the internet solely because their free speech is in contradiction with another person’s free speech.”
Kapadia said although the BU administration claims to be dedicated to free speech, they have not spoken out about online threats. Kapadia declined to comment regarding the nature of the actions.
“We’ve really put that out there and yet for some reason, the administration is silent when it comes to doxing and prohibiting free speech for certain political ideologies,” Kapadia said.
While he said he has not yet spoken with other student governments in the area, Kapadia said these issues have been “pretty pervasive at BU relative to other schools.”
In response to the increase in doxxing, Kapadia shared that he has spoken with Jason Campbell-Foster, dean of students, and John Battaglino, assistant dean of students and director of Student Activities.
Kapadia said the fundraisers passed by StuGov two weeks ago for the American Friends of Magen David Adom fundraiser — an Israeli charity — raised over $12,000 and the PCRF raised over $7,000.
Later on, Vivian Dai, co-chair of BU Young Democratic Socialists of America, requested a town hall endorsement for the BUGWU this Friday at 3 p.m. at BU Central.
The endorsement comes after anticipation that BUGWU will have to compete with administration in order to accomplish their basic demands such as wages and healthcare.
Dai shared that escalations are anticipated due to “historical trends with other units of SEIU.”
Friday’s town hall aims to collect undergraduate feedback about how the new contract will affect them.
“They want to make sure that when they escalate, they do it in a way that doesn’t inadvertently hurt undergrads,” Dai said. “BU has shown that they often do not bargain in good faith with their workers when they unionize.”
