John Robert Silber (born August 15, 1926) is the controversial former president of Boston University and unsuccessful conservative Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts in the 1990 election. Events 778 - The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, at which Roland is killed Year 1926 ( MCMXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. For similarly-named academic institutions see Education in Boston MA. The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Every four years Massachusetts holds state-wide elections for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of the Commonwealth He was born in San Antonio, Texas and is the author of two books: one part memoir and part political prescription, entitled Straight Shooting; the second a denunciation of the work of certain contemporary architects, entitled Architecture of the Absurd.
On May 14, 2008, the City of Boston renamed Sherborn St. , which bisects the main Boston University Campus from Commonwealth Ave. through Bay State Rd. ending at Back St. , "John R. Silber Way. " According to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who oversaw the renaming ceremony, the new name for Sherborn St. Thomas Michael Menino (born December 27, 1942) is the mayor of Boston Massachusetts, United States and the city's first was "fitting" as an honor for Silber. "Was there any other way?" Menino quipped, referring to Silber's four decades of influence on the B. U. campus the street was located on.
John Silber reportedly frowned at the mayor's attempt at jocularity. [1]
Education and early academic career
Silber graduated from Trinity University in 1947 and spent a year at Yale Divinity School and a semester at the University of Texas School of Law before returning to study philosophy at Yale University. Trinity University is an independent primarily Undergraduate, university in San Antonio, Texas. Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U The University of Texas School of Law is an ABA -certified American Law school located on The University of Texas at Austin campus Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language He studied Kant and issues on the philosophy of education. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg
Silber received his M. A. in 1952 and his Ph. D. He worked as a teaching assistant while doing graduate work. Peter H. Hare, Philosophy Professor Emeritus, at SUNY State University of New York at Buffalo remembers Silber as a teaching assistant at Yale in the mid-1950s when he was an undergraduate. State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly known as University at Buffalo (UB is a Coeducational public research University, which Hare wrote, "George Schrader was the lecturer in the introductory course where John Silber was the TA leading my discussion section. Silber, a rabid Kantian, was the person with whom I had my first heated philosophical arguments as an adult. [2]"
Silber's first faculty job was at University of Texas at Austin where he chaired the Philosophy department from 1962-1967. While he was a student in philosophy at UT, Larry Hickman, Director, Center for Dewey Studies, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale said, "The department chairs during those years, John Silber and Irwin C. Southern Illinois University is a state university located in Southern Illinois with two institutions and multiple campuses Carbondale is the name of some places in the United States of America Carbondale Colorado Carbondale Illinois Carbondale Lieb, were busy using Texas oil money to collect the very best faculty and graduate students they could find. [3]"
In 1967, Silber became Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UT. He was removed as Dean in 1970 by UT Regents Chairman Frank Erwin, ostensibly for his opposition to the division of the College into three units - a College of Humanities, a College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and a College of Natural Sciences. However, Erwin was widely believed to have regarded Silber as too independent of Erwin's control. Silber left UT in 1971.
Boston University
Silber became the seventh president of Boston University in 1971, and in 1996 became chancellor after stepping down as president. With an annual salary that reached $800,000, Silber ranked as one of the highest paid college presidents in the country. That same year he was appointed by William Weld to serve as head of the Massachusetts Board of Education. William Floyd Weld (born July 31, 1945, in Smithtown New York) was the Republican Governor of Massachusetts from 1991 The Massachusetts Board of Education (BOE is responsible for interpreting and implementing laws relevant to Public education in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Under Silber, Boston University increased in size and stature but questions about his leadership style caused splits among faculty and alumni. In 1976, Silber survived an attempted ouster that was supported by ten deans. He remained president until 1989, when he took a leave of absence to run for governor of Massachusetts as a Democrat. He returned to BU after losing to William Weld.
Controversies
His tenure at Boston University was not without controversy. In addition to policies that directly impact student life, Silber also made other controversial decisions that impacted Boston University's image. For example, he disbanded the football team during his tenure as president, citing financial losses, although the real reason likely was to avoid being bound by Title IX, which mandated gender equity between the sexes in sports scholarships. Silber was quoted by Sports Illustrated as saying that the University of Paris doesn't have a football team, with SI's writer noting that B. Sports Illustrated is an American Sports Magazine owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. The historic University of Paris (Université de Paris first appeared in the second half of the 13th century U. was not the Sorbonne.
Most controversial of all, and alienating to students, faculty and alumni alike, were his actions related to denying tenure or promotion to particular faculty perceived as not sharing his views, resulting in public feuding and lawsuits. People and the press were not used to a private university being run as a private fiefdom for the financial and social benefit of its president, a situation that still causes controversy (Re: the 2007 Oral Roberts University scandal). Oral Roberts University or ORU, based in Tulsa Oklahoma, is a charismatic Christian Liberal arts University with an enrollment
"Sale" of honorary degrees and seats in professional schools
In the early 1980s, he courted conservative German publisher Axel Springer, the founder and owner of the Axel Springer AG publishing company and publisher of the tabloid newspaper Bild. Axel Springer ( May 2, 1912, Altona, Hamburg - September 22, 1985, West Berlin) was a German journalist Axel Springer AG is one of the largest newspaper publishing companies in Europe, having over 150 newspapers and magazines in over 30 countries including The Bild (formerly Bild-Zeitung, lit Picture Newspaper) is a German Newspaper published by Axel Springer AG. The most popular newspaper in all of Europe, the conservative Bild was at the forefront of the Cold War-era cultural wars against the Soviet Union and collectivist ideology. The Bild (formerly Bild-Zeitung, lit Picture Newspaper) is a German Newspaper published by Axel Springer AG. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the Springer, a target of the student radicals of the 1960s who had been denounced by such German intellectuals as Heinrich Böll, was awarded an honorary doctorate from B. Heinrich Theodor Böll ( December 21, 1917 — July 16, 1985) was one of Germany 's foremost post- World War II writers U. in 1981. [4].
At the time of Springer's investiture, the primary (independent) student newspaper at B. U. , the Daily Free Press, as well as the unofficial student newspaper that had proved a gadfly during the Silber administration (whose staff members were featured on Mike Wallace's January 1980 60 Minutes piece on Silber), the b.u. exposure, obtained and published university documentation about the marketing of honorary degrees. Mike Wallace (born Myron Leon Wallace on May 9, 1918) is an American journalist. Not to be confused with the BBC news magazine program Sixty Minutes (TV series. The bu exposure was a Student newspaper at Boston University during the 1970s and 1980s that received national press coverage for exposing the moral A list of potential honorees had been drawn up, based not on their merit but on their likely propensity to seek public honors and their ability or willingness to pay for it. Prominently mentioned in the documents was independent movie producer Joseph E. Levine, who had been born in Boston. Joseph E Levine ( September 9, 1905 – July 31, 1987) was an American Film producer. Staff were instructed to make feelers to Levine, with the ultimate award to be on a sliding-scale system depending on his generosity to the university. A seven-figure donation to B. U. would garner the ultimate accolade, an honorary doctorate. (Levine never was awarded a degree from B. U. )
In March 1978, the b.u. exposure also broke the story of the "sale" of seats in the university's law and medical schools. The bu exposure was a Student newspaper at Boston University during the 1970s and 1980s that received national press coverage for exposing the moral The exposure story revealed that the university had accepted "advanced payments from Law and Medical School applicants as a precondition to admission".
Attack on Leftist Faculty
The Springer doctorate came after a decade long battle that Silber had waged against leftists on the B. U. faculty, which had included vetoing the hiring of Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse and a war of wills with political science professor Howard Zinn. Herbert Marcuse ( July 19, 1898 &ndash July 29, 1979) was a German philosopher and sociologist, and a member of Howard Zinn (born August 24 1922 is an American Historian, political scientist, social critic, activist and Playwright, best known Silber also fired the renowned black journalist, William Worthy, Jr. William Worthy Jr (b 1921) is an African-American Journalist, born in Boston Massachusetts. , who served as head of the B. U. African American journalism program, after Worthy spoke out in support of workers who attempted to unionize against the Silber administration. Silber's actions lead to a climate where other notable leftist scholars left B. U. to take positions at other universities, including Fritz Ringer and Henry Giroux. Henry Giroux, born September 18 1943 in Providence, is a US cultural critic The latter took a position at the University of Miami (OH) and later Penn State.
Along these same lines in 1975 the faculty of B. U. voted to unionize, but Silber refused to recognize their union.
Real estate scandal and connections with organized crime
Contemporaneous with a real estate scandal broken by the Boston Globe, it was claimed that B. The Boston Globe (and Boston Sunday Globe) is the most widely circulated daily Newspaper in Boston and in New England, U. was buying properties in the Kenmore Square area of Boston from organized crime figures with ties to directors on the B. U. board. These charges resulted in several protests and possibly contributed to a lower rate of alumni giving.
Institutionalized homophobia
A conservative on many issues, Silber refused to add "sexual orientation," within which term he included "pedophilia, incest and bestiality" as well as homosexuality and heterosexuality[5] to the university's non-discrimination clause.
In 2000-2001, Silber upheld a campus-wide guest visitor policy for Boston University's housing system which was much stricter than other area universities. He justified the policy by arguing that lax visitor's policies would lead to students bringing "their sexual partners to the room for sessions of fun and games", according to an interview he conducted with the Daily Free Press, B. U. 's student newspaper. [6]
In 2002, Silber ordered that a B. U. -affiliated high school academy disband its gay-straight alliance. The alliance was a student club that staged demonstrations against homophobia. BenPhelpsJPG|thumb|right|Westboro Baptist Church picket signs with Ben Phelps grandson of Fred Phelps Silber dismissed the stated purpose of the club, that of serving as a support group for gay students that also sought to promote tolerance and understanding between gay and straight students, and accused it of being a vehicle for "homosexual recruitment". In a support group, members provide each other with various types of help usually nonprofessional and nonmaterial for a particular shared usually burdensome characteristic Homosexual recruitment is a term used disapprovingly for perceived activities of LGBT people to actively target impressionable individuals to persuade them to identify At the time, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts funded gay-straight student clubs in 156 schools. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The move was a highly controversial one and engendered a great deal of criticism from the gay, progressive communities, including public condemnation by U. S. Representative Barney Frank in the Daily News. Barnett "Barney" Frank (born March 31, 1940) is an American Politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives (Ironically, Silber's own son had died of AIDS in 1996. )[7] Though his son may have been gay, Silber may be in denial, as he said in a 1992 interview in Newsday, "Decent parents don't even discuss [with their children] the possibility that there are homosexuals. Newsday is a daily Tabloid -size Pulitzer Prize winning Newspaper that primarily serves Long Island and the New York City " [8]
Adelphi University
Silber was on the board of trustees of Adelphi University in 1996 when the New York State Board of Regents dismissed seventeen of the trustees along with the president amidst charges of corruption made by the faculty union. Adelphi University is a private Nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County New York. History The Board of Regents of the USNY was established by statute in 1784 to provide oversight to King's College (today known as Columbia University) a private institution
The reputation of Boston University and its alumni giving rate
During Silber's tenure, Boston University's reputation improved, ranking consistently since 1970 as one of the top universities in the United States. He was directly responsible for the hiring of four Nobel Prize winners in science, as well as the recruiting of Nobel Literature Laureate Saul Bellow and the hiring of Elie Wiesel as a professor in the School of Religion in the 1970s, before he won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Prize (Nobelpriset (Nobelprisen is a Swedish prize established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Peace, Literature Saul Bellow, born Solomon Bellows ( June 10, 1915 – April 5, 2005) was an acclaimed Canadian -born American Elie Wiesel (born Eliezer Wiesel on September 30 1928 in Sighetu Marmaţiei, Romania) is a Jewish writer professor political activist
In 2002, U.S. News and World Report, whose rankings of colleges and universities is among the most respected in the country, ranked B. USNews & World Report is an influential weekly American Newsmagazine published in Washington D U. as a "second tier" national university, not in the top 52 institutions. Seventeen Magazine, in its rankings of "The 100 Coolest Colleges", ranked B. Seventeen is an American Magazine for teenagers. It was first published in 1944. U. 72nd. [9]
For at least 30 years, Silber's controversies and his acidulous personality have been cited as the root cause of B. U. 's unusually low rate of alumni giving. In 2004, U. S. News and World Report reported that only 11% of B. U. alumni made contributions to their alma mater, a low rate for a national university. [10] (The alumni giving rates at Princeton University and Harvard University, the top two national schools in the 2008 survey, were 60% and 40%, respectively. Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. [11] However, it is in line with national averages for all schools of higher learningm as the Boston Globe reports that the alumni giving rate nationally was 11. The Boston Globe (and Boston Sunday Globe) is the most widely circulated daily Newspaper in Boston and in New England, 8% in 2006, representing a significant drop off in the past decade, as the rate was 16. 8% in 1996. [12])
The low alumni giving rate is considered by some to have adversely impacted B. U. 's national rankings as a top school. In the 2007 U.S. News and World Report, B. USNews & World Report is an influential weekly American Newsmagazine published in Washington D U. did not make the top 50, being ranked #57, far behind comparable Boston-area schools Tufts University (#28), Brandeis University (#31), and Boston College (#35). Brandeis University is a private research University with a Liberal arts focus located in Waltham Massachusetts, United States. For similarly-named academic institutions see Education in Boston MA. It also ranked behind #34 New York University, which the Silber administration had used as the yardstick for B. U. during the 1980s. Of the schools in its region, it essentially was tied with #62 Worcester Polytechnic Institute and #64 University of Connecticut, but ranked far above Northeastern University, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, both of which were in an 11-way tie for #96. The University of Connecticut ( Connecticut or UConn) is the State of Connecticut 's Land-grant university. Northeastern University, abbreviated NU or NEU, is a private University in Boston Massachusetts. The University of Massachusetts Amherst (otherwise known as UMass Amherst, Massachusetts, or UMass) is a research and Land-grant university in [13]
Silber's "Deferred Compensation Package"
On May 10, 2006, the New York Times reported that the trustees of Boston University had given Silber an unprecedented compensation package worth $6. 1 million in 2005 [14], which critics contend is more akin to a golden parachute, bonus, or gift given to a corporate chief executive officer. Academic sources say it is three times higher than the normal payout and is the highest such payout in over 30 years. The announcement of Silber's windfall, which was revealed due to tax filings by B. U. , reportedly has engendered outrage in the academic community.
Political activities
Silber was the first chair of the Texas Society to Abolish Capital Punishment and a leader in the integration of the University of Texas. Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. Racial integration, or simply integration includes Desegregation (the process of ending systematic Racial segregation) He was involved in the creation of Operation Head Start. For the Australian television series see Head Start (TV series Head Start is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human
In 1990 Silber ran for Governor of Massachusetts as a Democrat. Every four years Massachusetts holds state-wide elections for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of the Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. His outsider status as well as his outspoken and combative style were at first seen as advantages in a year in which voters were disenchanted with the Democratic party establishment. After winning the Democratic nomination, Silber faced Republican William Weld. William Floyd Weld (born July 31, 1945, in Smithtown New York) was the Republican Governor of Massachusetts from 1991 Silber's angry personality, which appalled many voters, coupled with Weld's socially liberal views helped Weld in the race. During the gubernatorial race, Silber regularly overreacted to seemingly standard questions from the press. These overreactions came to be known as "Silber shockers". Ultimately, Weld was able to hold on to a significant portion of the Republican base while appealing to large numbers of Democrats and left-of-center independents, enabling him to defeat Silber by four points. Weld became the first Republican to serve as governor since 1974. [15]
In 1998 Silber took on the cause of Benjamin LaGuer, an inmate proclaiming his innocence for a 1983 rape and who had earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude through the Boston University prison education program. Benjamin LaGuer (born May 1 1963) is a convicted rapist He is serving a life sentence in Massachusetts. For similarly-named academic institutions see Education in Boston MA. Silber continued to support LaGuer even after a 2002 DNA test which seemed to link him to the crime. Deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) is a Nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known In 2003 Silber testified to the parole board alleging "irregularities" in how the evidence was handled raising the possibility that the test was botched.
Social Criticism
Silber has written two books. Straight Shooting: What's wrong with America and How to Fix It (Harper & Row, 1989), and Architecture of the Absurd: How "Genius" Disfigured a Practical Art (Quantuck Lane, 2007).
Straight Shooting embodies Silber's concern the America has experienced a decline in moral and spiritual values. He considers this has led to excessive avarice and materialism. He also faults society with an excessive reliance of litigation to settle disputes.
Architecture of the Absurd discusses Silber's view that certain "celebrity" architects frequently fail to meet the needs of their clients because they consider themselves primarily sculptors and do not adequately consider financial constraints, the physical needs of building occupants or the urban environment. The architects he names include Josep Lluís Sert, Le Corbusier, Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind and Steven Holl. Josep Lluís Sert i López (1902—1983 was a Spanish Architect from Catalonia. Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, who chose to be known as Le Corbusier ( October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965) was a Swiss Frank Owen Gehry CC (born Ephraim Owen Goldberg, February 28, 1929) is a Pritzker Prize -winning Architect Daniel Libeskind, (born May 12 1946 in Łódź, Poland) is an American Architect, Artist, and Set designer of Steven Holl (born December 9, 1947, Bremerton Washington) is an American academic Architect and watercolorist best known for the 1998 [16] One example cited by Silber is Le Corbusier's megalomaniacal 1930s plan for Algiers, which called for the demolition of the entire city. Algiers (الجزائر Algerian Arabic: Dzayer ( (From kabyle pronunciation Kabyle: Ledzayer, Alger) is the Capital and largest A more recent example is Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall which, before it was modified at additional expense, made rooms of nearby condominiums unbearably warm causing their air-conditioning costs to skyrocket and created hot spots on adjacent sidewalks of as much as 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center. [17] The book is evocative of another polemic against modern architecture, From Bauhaus to Our House, published by Tom Wolfe, an admirer of Silber who reportedly used him as a model for a character in his 1998 novel A Man in Full. From Bauhaus to Our House is a 1981 book critiquing Modern architecture, written by Tom Wolfe. Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr (born March 2, 1931 in Richmond, Virginia) known as Tom Wolfe, is a Best-selling A Man in Full is a Novel by Tom Wolfe, published in 1998 by Farrar Straus & Giroux.
Earlier, BU published a 32-page article by Silber, called "Democracy: Its Counterfeits and Its Promise" (1976). Other of his articles have been published in Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Review and Kant-Studien where he served as editor.
Further reading
- Allis, Sam, The Ivory Tower Triggerman, Time Magazine, August 28, 1989, 69.
External links
- Boston University's biography of Silber
- Debate between Silber and Noam Chomsky over the Nicaraguan Contras
- Village Voice article accusing Silber of bigotry and homophobia
- The Boston bully: Boston U. chancellor John Silber had a gay son who died of AIDS. So why is he such a dedicated homophobe? The Advocate (Nov 26, 2002)
- New York Review of Books sequence of letters:
References
- ^ Boston Globe, 15 May 2008 'Doing it my way'
- ^ A PHILOSOPHICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY by the late Peter H. The New York Review of Books (or NYREV or NYRB) is a semimonthly Magazine on Literature, Culture, and current Hare, Professor Emeritus, SUNY at Buffalo
- ^ A PHILOSOPHICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Larry Hickman
- ^ Honours of Axel Springer, retrieved 14 March 2008
- ^ Silber speaks out on non-discrimination stance, Daily Free Press, 12 October 2004
- ^ Silber Speaks On The Guest Policy, Daily Free Press, 18 March 2002
- ^ The Last Candid Man, A Homophobe Hides Behind His Right to Discriminate, by Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice, 15 October 2002
- ^ Gay column leads to 475 cancellations by Louis I. Gelfand, Nieman Reports v47, n3 (Fall, 1993):82 (2 pages)
- ^ BU receives low marks from U.S. News, Seventeen, The Daily Free Press, 20 September 2002
- ^ BU critics decide it's time to speak up, Boston Globe, 16 Nov 2003
- ^ America's Best Colleges 2008 - National Universities: Top Schools, US News & World Report
- ^ Colleges fear debt puts damper on donations Boston Globe, 9 July 2007
- ^ America's Best Colleges 2008 - National Universities: Top Schools, US News & World Report
- ^ New Yrok Times, 10 May 2006 'Boston University Gave Ex-Chief $6. 1 Million, Officials Disclose'
- ^ Throw Some of the Bums Out! Time Magazine, 1 October 1990
- ^ Silber, J. "Celebrity Architects" Letter to the editor, New York Times, December 22, 2007.
- ^ Wikipedia article: "Walt Disney Concert Hall". The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center.
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