John Silber

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John Silber on the cover of his book "Straight Shooting", which was published in 1989.

John Robert Silber (born August 15, 1926) is an American academic and politician. He was president of Boston University. On a conservative platform, he unsuccessfully ran as the Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts in the 1990 election and lost to the moderate Republican William Weld.

Silber was trained in and taught philosophy. He has written two books, one, Straight Shooting, is part memoir and part political prescription; the second, Architecture of the Absurd is a 128-page denunciation of the work of some contemporary architects.

[edit] Family, education and early academic career

John Silber was the second son of Paul G. Silber, a German immigrant architect, and Jewell Joslin Silber, an elementary school teacher. His father's business collapsed.^[1] during the Great Depression.

At Trinity University in San Antonio, John Silber met Kathryn Underwood, daughter of farmers in Normanna, Texas. The couple married in 1947 and had eight children, one son and six daughters, and they adopted another son. Their first-born son, and daughter, were born before 1955. Five more daughters were born in the next 11 years.^[2] Their first-born son, David Silber,^[3] died of AIDS at age 41 at their home in December 1994.^[1][4]

Silber received his M.A. in 1952 and worked as a teaching assistant while pursuing a doctoral degree. 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 while Hare was still an undergraduate. 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.^[5]"

Silber's first faculty job was at University of Texas at Austin where he chaired the Philosophy department from 1962-1967. Larry Hickman, Director, Center for Dewey Studies, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale recalls his time as a student in philosophy at UT. "The department chairs during those years, John Silber and Irwin C. Lieb, were busy using Texas oil money to collect the very best faculty and graduate students they could find.^[6]"

While at UT Silber founded the Texas society to abolish capital punishment.^[7]

In 1967, Silber became Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UT. Three years later, in a widely publicized firing, Silber was removed as Dean in 1970 by the strong-willed UT Regents Chairman Frank Craig Erwin, Jr..

Although Erwin was supported by most of the legislature, he had a tempestuous relationship with many members of the university faculty. His hands-on style of leadership led to conflicts with those professors who considered the academy to be their jurisdiction. The conflict culminated with the firing in July 1970 of Dean John Silber of the College of Arts and Sciences, who had led the opposition to a proposed splitting of his college into two. The dismissal was perceived by many as politically motivated, since Silber's growing popularity was often considered a threat to the regents' control of the university. After the dismissal, several notable professors fled the university. [1]

Silber left UT in 1971.

[edit] Boston University

Silber became the seventh president of Boston University in 1971, and in 1996 was named 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.

Under Silber, Boston University increased in size but questions about his leadership style caused splits among faculty and alumni. According to Perspectives Online, the publication of the American Historical Association, Fritz K. Ringer held the presidency of the Boston University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) for eight years. "Serving at a time when the BU president (Silber) was running roughshod over faculty rights, Fritz Ringer bravely and vigorously championed the principles of academic freedom."^{[8] [9]}

In 1976, Silber survived an attempted ouster that was supported by ten deans.^{[citation needed]} 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.

[edit] 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 ^[10], 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.

[edit] Political activities

Silber was the first person  to chair the Texas Society to Abolish Capital Punishment. He advocated integration  at the University of Texas and promoted Operation Head Start, an early education program for preschoolers. 

In 1990 Silber ran for Governor of Massachusetts as a Democrat. 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. As the Democratic nominee, Silber faced Republican William Weld. 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 questions from the press. These overreactions came to be known as "Silber shockers". On the campaign trail he called Massachusetts a "welfare magnet" and proposed cutting off benefits for unmarried mothers who have a second child while still on public aid. He questioned saving the lives of terminally ill elderly people, quoting Shakespeare and saying that "when you've had a long life and you're ripe, then it's time to go." He said that the feminist Gloria Steinem, the black Muslim leader, Louis Farrakhan, and white supremacists are "the kind of people I wouldn't appoint as judges." ^[11] 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.^[12]

In 1998 Silber expressed support for Benjamin LaGuer, a state prison inmate who said he was innocent of the 1983 rape for which he had been convicted by an all-white male jury. LaGuer had earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude through the Boston University prison education program. Silber continued to support LaGuer even after 2002 when a trace DNA test seemed to link LaGuer to the crime. In 2003 Silber told the parole board of irregularities in the way the evidence was handled, raising the possibility that the test was botched.

[edit] Publications

Silber wrote 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 is part autobiography and partly a statement of Silber's concern that the United States has experienced a decline in moral and spiritual values traceable to excessive avarice and materialism. He also faults society with excessive reliance on 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. He is critical of architects Josep Lluís Sert, Le Corbusier, Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind and Steven Holl.^[13] One example cited by Silber is Le Corbusier's megalomaniacal 1930s plan for Algiers, which called for the demolition of the entire city. 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.^[14]

In 1976, BU published a 32-page article by Silber called "Democracy: Its Counterfeits and Its Promise". Other of his articles have been published in Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Review and Kant-Studien where he served as editor.

[edit] Boston street named for him

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." Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said the new name for Sherborn St. 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.^[15]

[edit] Further reading

• Allis, Sam, The Ivory Tower Triggerman, Time Magazine, August 28, 1989, 69.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Boston University's biography of Silber
• Video of Debate between Silber and Noam Chomsky over the Nicaraguan Contras at YouTube (requires Adobe Flash) and Transcript at the Internet Archive
• 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:
  • Letter from professors at Boston University accusing Silber of violating academic freedom
  • Response to the letter by the Boston University professors from a Silber supporter
  • Rebuttal by the Boston University professors to the response by the Silber supporter