Silber answers questions in shortened event

Chancellor John Silber answered seven questions from Boston University students regarding such topics as smoking, housing and the Student Union in an event which was scheduled to last two hours, as reported by Senate Chairman Joel Fajardo Monday night.

However, the event lasted just over an hour, and some Boston University students said they were disappointed with the lack of and relative tame nature of the questions asked last night.

“If you said the questions were tame — I agree with you,” Silber said at the end of the meeting.

“I feel like he stalled up there,” said College of Arts and Sciences senior Rebecca Watkins. “At no time did he clearly and concisely address the issues.”

Watkins, who said she is looking into BU as a possibility for graduate work, is concerned about Silber as president, especially regarding remarks he made about homosexuality as a fad, she said.

“I will have to give serious thought to attending here if [Silber] remains president,” she said. “The man is a fossil.”

Regardless, Silber addressed the students with humor and numerous stories about his life and career as an educator. While the meeting lasted less than the two hours it was originally planned for, Silber used most of the time for questions and only gave a brief speech at the beginning.

“As far as I am concerned, it is no holds barred,” Silber said at the start of questions. “So let’s go.”

One question pertained to Silber’s policies throughout his career and whether he regretted any.

“Well there’s got to be [some],” he said. “I can’t imagine there’s not.”

Silber went on to discuss his hiring and firing of personnel at the university and how he regretted bringing certain faculty members here. After regretting the hiring of some faculty members, he said trying to get rid of football in 1973 was also a mistake. Silber did say, however, when former President Jon Westling and the Board of Trustees discontinued the football program, it was not a mistake.

Silber told the story of how four alumni said they would never donate to the school again because BU had cut football, but in truth, only one of the four had ever donated in the first place. He noted how football was not as well attended as some of the lecturers on campus.

“Elie Wiesel draws more people at one of his lectures than we had at a football game,” Silber said.

He said he regretted his tendency to get angry, and discussed how a college president must be an experienced writer and understand when things are problematic or incorrectly stated.

“A good writer has to have a built-in crap detector — and I have a splendid one,” Silber said.

Another question was in regard to BU’s further development of its reputation and how students could be involved in that process.

“I think the primary involvement of students is in their coursework,” Silber said.

Silber continued by discussing how sometimes students do not take their education as seriously as they should and described students who want to party more than study.

“You get drunk, and you get sober. You get drunk, and you get sober,” he said. “You don’t get anymore drunk and you don’t get anymore sober. It is like eating the same cereal everyday.”

Silber said students should take advantage of the opportunities available at the university, such as joining the debate team, playing a musical instrument or attending one of the many lectures held on campus. Silber discussed an Islamic Art lecture, which will take place in the near future as one of the opportunities of which students will most likely not take advantage.

“You’ve got nothing better to do than expand your mind,” he said in regard to the lecture.

While discussing student activism, and how superficial most of it is, Silber also outlined his role as chancellor and president of the university.

“My job is to educate students, not to pander to them,” he said.

One student asked about the cost of on-campus housing, specifically the expensive nature of the Student Residences at 10 Buick St.

Silber answered by saying there is more on-campus housing than ever, and since his first day in office, BU has almost doubled its housing stock. He did, however, note he came into office right after the completion of certain dormitories, such as Warren Towers.

“I don’t ever want to be accused of building [Warren Towers],” Silber said, resulting in the audience’s laughter. “Beats the hell out of being homeless.”

Silber said there are limitations on what the university can do about the price of housing; without funding, there is no way to pay for such projects as the new Student Village, which is designed to keep students living on-campus.

“It would be great if Santa Claus came to Boston University with about $500 million,” he said.

The next question followed similar lines and was about the perception of BU not having a “campus” and whether or not there were plans to create one.

Silber answered saying they have really tried to make BU the best urban campus possible. Silber said he has worked on adding trees and wastebaskets throughout campus to beautify the school. The chancellor made cracks at Boston College and its campus saying they overbuilt the school.

“Half the campus is taken up by the football stadium,” Silber said. “[BC] lost a lot of its charm.”

“[BU] never had a lot of charm, so we are trying to make it,” Silber added. “It’s about the ugliest place I ever saw,” Silber said of BU when he first joined BU. He said he hopes to continue the efforts to keep BU as beautiful an urban campus as possible.

One question related to the Union, and whether or not Silber believed the Union was doing its job.

“I think the Student Union is an organization students like to put together for a variety of reasons,” Silber answered. “What they do depends on the interest of the students.”

Silber said the job of the Union is not to run the university — that is job of the president. He added any university which was run by its student union would be poor.

“If you are smart enough to be running the place, you shouldn’t be paying to come here,” Silber said. “I get paid for doing my job. You pay me in order to come here.”

One of the final questions asked brought up the subject of limiting smoking in the dormitories, and why smoking is not taken as seriously as drinking alcohol. Silber responded saying something should be done, possibly implementing smoking and non-smoking dormitories.

“I wish we could all kick the habit,” he said. “Some students smoke enough to run up a bill of $1,000 a year.”

Silber then proceeded to discuss how there is more binge drinking in college today than in his generation because “most of us were broke.” He then discussed a story of how they used to split bottles of liquor between four people and make four parties out of it.

After discussing alcohol and smoking cigarettes, he began talking on the problem of drugs at the university and how it is more important to discourage drugs, referencing marijuana in particular.

“The people who use dope become dopey,” he said.

However, Silber said he knew his beliefs on drugs and alcohol may be a little different than those of the youth today.

“I realize how square that sounds,” he said. “I probably look more like a mailbox right now than a human being.”

The final question asked of Silber was about the anti-discrimination policy the university upholds and why there is no mention of sexual preference as part of the policy. Silber responded, making the argument BU has been ranked as the most accepting of homosexual students, according to the Princeton Review. He also said it would be more of an issue if discrimination of homosexuals was prevalent, but he said “it’s just not there.”

“I don’t want to hear about your sex life,” Silber added, after answering the question. “You want to say you are a macho man and you made out with 16 girls yesterday — I don’t want to hear it.”

Silber finished the question and ended the forum by very briefly discussing the disbanding of the Gay-Straight Alliance and the issue of National Coming Out Day being published on BU Academy’s calendar.

The Senate, who sponsored the forum with Silber, said they regretted having such an abrupt ending to the meeting and are already contemplating plans for next semester.

“We apologize that the meeting was cut short,” Senate Vice-chair Mike McLaughlin said. “We are currently looking into a similar event next semester.”

McLaughlin also said the question system may be changed in a future forum. Instead of speakers being required to pre-write their question and be called up to ask, the next event would be more of an open forum, with questions directly from the audience.