Bill Ayers, known for his involvement in the Weather Underground as well as for his work as an education theorist was to speak at Boston College Monday before the event was canceled by the University on Friday. The event had been organized by Americans for Informed Democracy (AID).
Michael Madormo, president of the BC chapter of AID, said that his group had been working with a variety of campus groups, including the College Democrats and the AHANA Leadership Council (ALC), as well the Lynch School of Education and the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy over the past month. The event was titled "The State of Democracy in America: Education Reform and Civic Engagement," and was to focus on Ayers' experience as an educator and not his political activities,Madormo said.
"Inviting Bill Ayers to Boston College in no way sanctions his activities in the past, especially regarding the Weather Underground," Madormo said. "The lecture is merely an opportunity to hear from one of the nation's preeminent scholars on issues of urban education reform. At a university, we have the responsibility to hear all voices even if we disagree with them. Above all, this is an issue of free speech and allowing the student body to hear a unique and respected academic viewpoint," he added later in a release.
The release, titled "BC students forced to take Prof. Bill Ayers off campus - Student organizers in search of new venue after BC administrators abandon academic freedom" and distributed by the ALC, AID, and College Democrats, cites protests among the GLBTQ community in 2005, the AHANA community in 2006, and the sexual health referendum passed earlier this year as examples of the administration's "restricted interpretation of academic freedom in the past" that have prompted outcries from the BC community.
Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and has published books on education, including Teaching the Personal and the Political: Essays on Hope and Justice, and On the Side of the Child: Summerhill Revisited.
University Spokesman Jack Dunn said that Karl Bell, assistant dean in the Office for Student Development, met with the event organizers during the day on Friday to inform them that protests of the event had been organized by, among others, Boston Police and family members of Boston Police Sergeant Walter Shroeder, who was allegedly killed by members of the Weather Underground in September of 1970. The Boston Globe reported that Shroeder was shot by William Gilday in the course of a bank robbery in Brighton. Ayers was never convicted of implication in the crime.
The event's organizer's were "disappointed " by the event's last-minute cancellation. "BC is setting a dangerous precedent by canceling this event. In the past, administrators have cancelled events that they see as being at odds with Jesuit, Catholic ideals. Now, a new precedent has been set which permits the cancellation of any event that is at odds with the ideals of BC's wealthy and largely conservative donors," said Melissa Roberts, vice president of the BC College Democrats and A&S '09. "A university should be a place where students can hear all ideas, not just popular or profitable ones."
"It's becoming a matter of free speech now because the University was pressured by different groups and they gave in to those groups," Madormo said.
There were also protests by Web sites and 96.9 WTKK talk radio show host Michael Graham, which called attention to the event and spurred coverage by the likes of the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. On Friday, Graham posted the e-mail addresses of several administrators, including University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., on his Web site in protest against the University's initial decision to let allow the event to take place. "The good guys win! Ayers is out! Because you spoke out, got on the phones and sent the emails, Boston College did the right thing and told unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers to take a hike," Graham posted on his site. Dunn said that the talk radio broadcasts did not affect the University's decision. "We were not in any way swayed by talk radio," he said. The decision to cancel the event was made by Student Affairs due to concerns for student safety.
"The safety issue with students was due to the threatening tone of a lot of the calls that we received," Dunn said. "In light of the information we had, the best decision for student safety was made."
"As one of the nation's premier universities, we pride ourselves on the free expression of ideas and on the prestige that Boston College 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. 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 that we could not ignore," Dunn said. "As a result, a decision was made by the Office of Student Programs to cancel the event out of respect for the Schroeder family and out of concern for the safety and well being of our students. We believe that, in light of these unique circumstances, the appropriate decision was made in this case ."
Dunn said that Ayers' reticence in showing contrition for his past activities makes the situation more difficult for the community. "This remains a particularly divisive and emotionally charged issue here in Boston, one that is exacerbated by Ayers' refusal to demonstrate contrition for his actions of forty years ago," he said.
"Our student organizers, who are in their early 20's, cannot fully understand the reaction that this painful chapter in our history evokes. But we have an obligation in formulating our decisions to remind them of the need we all have to take responsibility for our actions, past and present," Dunn added in an e-mail.
Madormo said that Ayers has been characterized by the media as a radical in the public mind, especially since the last presidential election. However, he said that Ayers deserves to speak on the area of his academic expertise, education. "I think it would be irresponsible to not look at what he has done since then," Madormo said. Madormo and Roberts said that they plan on having the event off campus at a location to be disclosed at the latest possible time. "We anticipate that if word gets out to far in advance there will definitely be I guess intense if not violent protest," Roberts said. "We're currently searching for another venue and right now we are determined to have Bill Ayers at Boston College."
Alexi Chi contributed to this report.
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