In response to Peter Wood’s letter (“Marchers voice unheard protests” April 17), it is sad that at a school as large and diverse as Boston University, students are encouraged only to echo the thoughts of others, rather than create their own. Although college years are a time to explore your surroundings and develop your values, there is an emphasis placed on looking alike, acting alike and thinking alike.
I once believed that BU was a whole new world, bursting with endless options and challenges and valuing those who are courageous enough to break with the status quo, as compared to my provincial hometown in upstate New York. Now I realize that the BU community strives to be just as suffocating a straitjacket as the repressive homogeneity found in any small town USA.
It seems that Peter Wood felt a great sense of satisfaction in pointing out that the logistics of the “Day of Action” were not foolproof, that there were actually less participants than reported (I counted 55) and that the list of demands seemed arbitrary and not feasible. Claiming that the protesters demanded that the BU administration free Tibet is not only untrue, but also an unremarkably simple way to discredit the protesters and ignore the issues that they feel passionately about. Rather than focus on irrelevant aspects of the protest, it would take much more courage and introspection to actually remark on the demands that the protesters feel are worth fighting for.
My sister goes to SUNY Brockport, a college that prides itself on being a student-centered institution. At the end of each year the students fill out extensive surveys so that the administration can decide where improvements should be made. The students there are empowered to shape their own community simply by checking off different boxes — at BU even the most factually based, student and faculty supported petitions and letters are discarded and ignored. If it were simply a matter of letting the administration know that girls are upset because they don’t have access to a campus rape crisis center, that gays are upset because the BU non-discrimination policy allows for them to be treated unequally and that students and people of Boston are upset because BU is causing a housing crisis by providing undesirable housing to its students or no housing at all, students would not feel that they had no other option but to organize a rally and march to allow their voices to be heard.
As Wood so gleefully pointed out, “the president, the provost and the chancellor were all out of town.” Yet, I’m sure they have heard about the protest by now. In an ideal university setting, even if they disagree with the proposals set forth, they would applaud the efforts of those who dare to question their surroundings and have the audacity to stand up for what they believe. These would be the markers of a true education.
Erica Burley CAS ’01
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