The Daily Free Press editorial assessment of Jon Westling’s presidency of Boston University sinks to stunning depths of ignorance and incompetence (“BU stretches for new heights,” Sept. 3, pg. 10). Jon Westling brought to the presidency intellectual and moral leadership of the highest order.
On his watch, departments throughout the University appointed distinguished faculty members and improved programs of study, while the University itself elevated admissions standards. During his tenure as president from 1996 until 2002, Jon Westling’s spokesmanship on the ideals of liberal education was unsurpassed in this country, as was his courage in defense of those ideals. His commencement address in May 2002 brought exceptional honor and dignity to the entire Boston University community.
Certainly his accomplishments in fundraising deserve high praise. But the reason his fundraising has contributed so substantially to the quality of education and research and scholarship and student life at Boston University is that Jon Westling, like John Silber, has long understood how wealth has to be used to build and sustain a great university.
The record of Jon Westling’s accomplishments as president, the accomplishments of his administration, the progress of the University through his leadership, is far too substantial for inclusion here. But if the authors of The Daily Free Press bother to do any homework at all, they will learn how preposterous it is to claim that Jon Westling’s was a lame duck presidency.
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