STAFF EDIT: Markoff write-offs

After a nationwide, weeklong media blitz of coverage of the Philip Markoff case, Boston University students and news media alike are abuzz with speculation. While among the newsrooms, information can’t be traded fast enough, the resounding silence from campus administration at both BU medical and Charles River campuses is inconsistent with the university’s responsibility to inform students and affiliates of the serious events, like this one, that affect every member of the community.

In an effort to keep up appearances during a chaotic time, BU administration has kept its responses to the Markoff case vague and minimal. The three-sentence press release issued by the medical campus barely scratched the surface of the story and did nothing to quell skepticism or rumor, while the Admissions Receptions Center’s refusal to distribute The Daily Free Press’ coverage of the case seems like a blatant unwillingness to accept an uncomfortable truth. Discouraging the harassment of BU medical students and professors with questions about Markoff is one thing ‘- especially considering FERPA privacy laws ‘- but denying students reliable information from accredited sources as if the Markoff incident never happened, is quite another.

According to an article on the Virginia Tech website detailing the 2007 massacre, which occurred right around the time of new student admittance, the school exceeded its goal of enrolling over 5,000 students for its 2011 freshman class even after the terrifying, large-scale shooting. If Virginia Tech can maintain its reputation as an attractive university to prospective students after a campus-wide shooting, BU should recover similarly from the much smaller scale Markoff case. But instead of assisting BU students and prospective applicants in learning more about this shocking and relevant event, campus officials have eliminated BU’s very own newspaper from a major location on campus, suspended Markoff, and seem to be pretending that not much has happened at all.

Whether or not the administration cooperates, the news media will succeed in distributing information regarding the Markoff case, and inquiring students and faculty will receive it. But the BU’s seemingly na’iuml;ve approach to how to handle the Markoff case in the professional manner that members of the BU community deserve raises questions of where administration’s priorities lie.’ If it truly is more important to gloss over negative campus-related occurrences in the interest of maintaining a false fa’ccedil;ade of perfection to attract prospective students than it is to keep existing students informed and included, then maybe prospective students, have more to be wary about when considering attending BU than just the Markoff incident. If that isn’t the case, the administration needs to face the facts, and remove the wool from students’ eyes sooner rather than later.