I found John Silber’s recent comments to Globe staff writer Patrick Healy deplorable (“At BU, Silber fights ‘excess’,” The Boston Sunday Globe, Sept. 8, pg. 1). According to Silber, Boston University’s male students are little more than victims of raging hormones who can’t focus on their studies because too many women are present.

Silber cites a desire to “improve” the gender balance to make more men “gentlemen.” Funny, I didn’t think that etiquette was a key goal for a higher learning institution. On the other hand, he apparently dismisses any value that women have in the University. Why else would he want “to see the ratio of women fall to 55 percent?” Students’ academic and extracurricular achievements should matter, not their gender.

In addition to his offensive and woefully outdated opinions of both sexes, there are startling inaccuracies in his plans to “improve” BU. Among other things, he says he wants to increase the faculty-to-student ratio. This reduction would damage the perception of BU in the college rankings and translate into a diminished perception of the value of a BU degree. The price students pay for a BU education should result in smaller class sizes and a good faculty-to-student ratio. For example, independent study and senior projects not only provide excellent learning opportunities, but also provide the University with important research.

Certainly budget cuts are possible. I worked at BU for several years and saw handfuls of money thrown away on redundant or unproductive staff and construction projects that were completed far behind schedule and off-budget. However, a lot of funding is simply misdirected, going to a few key faculty and administrative positions, while the preceptors, lecturers and graduate students make very little money and do a lion’s share of the work.

Several years ago, I heard Silber had planned to slowly eliminate faculty positions and replace them with this cheaper labor. Though it may improve his bottom line, I don’t think it’s the way to run a world-class university. I think it’s time for BU alumni to take a good, hard look at what Silber hopes to accomplish for our alma mater and act accordingly — remember the power of the almighty dollar.