Word: silbering
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David A. Riesman '31, Ford Professor of Social Sciences, wrote a letter last month to the chairman of the Boston University committee arguing that B.U. President John R. Silber should be retained...
Wherever John R. Silber goes in academe, controversy seems to follow. In 1970, Silber, then 43, was fired as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Texas when he opposed the board of regents' plan to split his college into smaller schools. A year later, after a nine-month search by a 21-man committee, he was named president of Boston University. Since taking office, he has led an ambitious program to raise the school's admission standards, cut its sizable deficit ($2.2 million), and improve the quality of the faculty. Laudable goals...
...administration has been forced to modify its $128 million budget to meet the demands of declining enrollments and rising costs. In December, 90 untenured professors were told they would lose their jobs when their contracts expired. Announcing the need for a 20% budget cut in the next two years, Silber suggested that some tenured professors might also be released. But according to a number of faculty members, the issue was not the possible cutting but the administration's competence to budget fairly. As Mathematics Chairman Robin Esch puts it, "The issue is mismanagement...
...Silber, a Yale philosophy Ph.D. and an Immanuel Kant scholar, has admitted to his "warts, defects and idiosyncrasies." He has also tried to allay fears that a mass layoff of faculty is planned. After defending himself at the faculty meeting during which the no-confidence vote was taken, he asserted, "We have to have a tight ship, but we certainly don't intend to make any cuts at the expense of academic quality." Next week the trustees must decide whether Silber will stay at the helm or whether yet another long search must begin...
Certainly Boston University faces economic difficulties, and must cut back its expenses if it is to survive. But it is not clear that Silber--despite his innovative policies and new ideas--will be able to do it and still retain the essential characteristics of a university. He has created such division in the faculty, and alienated so many faculty members by his arbitrary decisions, that it is not surprising that the faculty has little confidence in his leadership. Silber should step down, in order to let someone who can work more closely with faculty and students take over...