The Boston College administration has decided not to allow a video conference with Bill Ayers, who was scheduled to speak in person at the University tonight, to take place on campus. The event was originally organized by the BC chapter of Americans for Informed Democracy (AID); it was canceled on Friday out of what a statement from the Division of Student Affairs cited as "concern for the safety and well being of our students and respect for the local community where the alleged actions of the Weather Underground continue to reverberate today."
In light of this cancellation, the organizers of the original event will hold a lecture titled "Academic Freedom at BC" tonight at 6 p.m. in Devlin 008 in its place. A flier distributed by the Boston College Democrats asks students to "Come support academic freedom at BC with the organizers of the Professor Bill Ayers Lecture."
Michael Madormo, president of the BC chapter of AID and A&S '09, confirmed that Bill Ayers would be speaking neither in person nor via satellite on or off campus tonight. The lecture that is to take its place will address the issues surrounding the cancellation and is expected to feature the event's student organizers as well as Kenneth Kersche of the political science department and the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy. Madormo said that a dean may or may not be present at the event.
In a statement released this morning regarding the cancellation of the event, Vice President for Student Affairs Patrick Rombalski said, "Rumors have since circulated that Mr. Ayers would either speak today at an off-campus location or appear via teleconference. The truth is that Ayers will not speak today on campus or off campus, nor will there be an on-campus teleconference tonight," he said. "We are exploring the possibility of working with the academic community to address the issues of civic activism and education within an appropriate academic forum at a future date."
Rombalski said that the University prides itself on the free expression of ideas and on the prestige that the institution holds as a destination of choice among prominent speakers. "But we are also aware of the obligation we hold to be respectful of our host community," he said. "The emotional scars of the murder of Boston Police Sergeant Walter Schroeder, allegedly at the hands of the Weather Underground, which left nine children fatherless in the shadows of this campus, was an issue we could not ignore."
BC Police Department Chief Robert Morse said that the BCPD is now attempting to alert the community that the event has been canceled. "It is canceled, there is no telecast. It's virtually the same thing, it would be viewed by the community as the same thing," Morse said when asked whether a video conference would pose the same threat to student safety as an in-person lecture.
Morse could not comment on what groups were threatening to protest at the event.
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