Last week, there was an extremely telling town hall on Boston University’s campus. One of BU’s advocacy groups, Students Against Hate Speech, hosted “Why It Sucks To BU: A TownHall” on Thursday and invited all BU students to attend.
And, if possible, the message conveyed through the event was even more striking and forceful than the name suggests.
The event’s name alone intrigued me, and when I learned the town hall was meant to bring students together to discuss changes they want to see at BU, I was even more excited.
The ever-looming weight of conservative pundit Ben Shapiro’s upcoming campus visit has led many students to question the values of the university. Some groups have drawn conclusions as to the roots and corresponding effects of possible ethical missteps by the university, and this town hall was born out of that sentiment for change.
Students Against Hate Speech set out to shed light on the uncomfortable assumption that BU is not only platforming hate speech by allowing Shapiro to visit, but are actively continuing a distinctly negative history of unethical decisions.
But the town hall is a perfect example of students coming together as a collective unit to showcase their political minds constructively.
Its effectiveness was translated in a myriad of ways, the most convincing found in the distinct themes of student harmony and potential change on campus.
While the speakers were honing in on the unfortunate nature of our institution’s actions, one could only wonder how we as a student body could truly work toward fixing these mistakes.
The fact that the town hall translated this message of communal development so well proves the necessity of events like this — even with such uncomfortable and frankly bold sentiments at the heart of their purpose.
It may be safe to assume that some BU students would be inherently turned off when faced with the idea of confronting the possible wrongdoings of their own university. But for those who do address such issues, their efforts to express their opinions has paid off by setting an example for students to come.
