John Silber

John Silber
Seventh President of Boston University
Term	1971 – 1996
Predecessor	Calvin B. T. Lee (Acting)
Successor	Jon Westling
Interim President of Boston University
Term	2002 – 2003
Predecessor	Jon Westling
Successor	Aram Chobanian (Ad Interim)
Born	(1926-08-15)August 15, 1926 San Antonio, Texas
Died	September 27, 2012(2012-09-27) (aged 86) Brookline, Massachusetts
Alma mater	Trinity University
Religion	Presbyterian
Spouse	Kathryn Underwood
Children	David Silber, Rachel Devlin, Judith Ballan, Alexandra Mock, Martha Hathaway, Ruth Belmonte, Caroline Lavender,

John Robert Silber (August 15, 1926 – September 27, 2012) was an American academician and former candidate for public office. From 1971 to 1996 he was President of Boston University and from 1996 to 2003 Chancellor of the University. From 2003 until his death he was President Emeritus. In 1990, Silber took a leave of absence from the University to run for political office. He won the Democratic primary to become that party's candidate for governor of Massachusetts in the Massachusetts gubernatorial election of 1990. He lost the general election to the moderate Republican William Weld, who won by 38,000 votes.

Silber was trained in and taught philosophy. He wrote two books. The first, Straight Shooting, is a social, political, and moral commentary on issues in that impact modern American life. The second, Architecture of the Absurd is a 128-page assessment of the work of contemporary iconic architects.

Family, education and early academic career

Silber was born in San Antonio, Texas, the second son of Paul George Silber, an immigrant architect from Germany, and Jewell (née Joslin) Silber, a Texas-born elementary school teacher. His father's architectural practice collapsed during the Great Depression. His parents were Presbyterians (Silber later discovered that his father was of Jewish ancestry).

At Trinity University in San Antonio, Silber double-majored in fine arts and philosophy. In the fall of 1943, as a freshman at Trinity, he met a sophomore named Kathryn Underwood, daughter of farmers from Normanna, Texas. The couple were engaged in January 1946 and married on July 12, 1947. Silber graduated summa cum laude from Trinity in June 1947. They had eight children, one son and six daughters by birth and one son by adoption. Their first-born son and daughter were born before 1955. Five more daughters were born over the next eleven years. Their first-born son, David Silber, died of AIDS at age 41 at their home in December 1994.

Silber received his M.A. in 1952 and worked first as a teaching assistant and then as an instructor 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."

Silber's first faculty job was at University of Texas at Austin (UT) 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."

While at UT, Silber founded the Texas society to abolish capital punishment.

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 UT Regents Chairman Frank Craig Erwin, Jr.

Silber was named president of Boston University on December 17, 1970. He took office the following month.

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 (BU) 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."

He remained president of Boston University 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.^{[citation needed]}

Among Silber's recruits to the Boston University faculty were the author Saul Bellow and Elie Wiesel, writer and concentration camp survivor. Silber possessed special sensitivity toward Jewish people,^{[citation needed]} which was heightened while he was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Bonn, West Germany.^{[citation needed]} It was there he learned his father's side of the family was Jewish and that his aunt had been killed at Auschwitz.^{[citation needed]} His father had never said anything about it.^{[citation needed]}

Tension with faculty and students

The 1970s marked a period of constant tension at Boston University. The president accused the faculty of mediocrity and the students of fostering anarchy, and they, in turn, accused him of tyrannical rule. Essentially, in response to the Silber administration, the faculty organized a union in 1974 and the following year voted to affiliate with the American Association of University Professors. The administration would not negotiate with the union, and in 1976 the refusal was challenged in a lawsuit. Two-thirds of the faculty and deans demanded the board of trustees fire Silber. The board refused. In 1978 the courts decided in favor of the AAUP position and Boston University was forced to negotiate. The faculty conducted a brief strike in 1979 which was followed by a clerical workers' walkout in which several faculty members refused to cross the picket line. Silber charged five of these faculty members with negligence and moved to have them disciplined. At that point faculty members throughout Boston signed a petition to have Silber removed. In 1984 the courts ruled that the local AAUP chapter could not engage in collective bargaining.

Silber was especially visible for confrontations with radical historian Howard Zinn. In one incident, Zinn arranged to take a sabbatical and teach in Paris, with Herbert Marcuse teaching at BU in the meantime. Silber vetoed the move. Silber also prevented Zinn from receiving pay raises and promotions over a number of years. In 1982, the AAUP intervened on Zinn's behalf, eventually forcing Silber to compensate Zinn for back pay.

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, including deferred compensation, worth $6.1 million in 2005.

Endowment controversy

During his tenure as President, $85 million, nearly one fifth of the Boston University endowment, was invested in a biotechnology company named Seragen. Investments continued, even after a rebuke from state regulators because of the risk involved. The bulk of the investment was lost when the Seragen stock collapsed.

Gay rights controversy

In 2002, Silber ordered that Boston University Academy disband its gay-straight alliance, a student club that staged demonstrations to publicize the deleterious effects of homophobia. Silber dismissed the stated purpose of the club -- to serve as a support group for gay students and to promote tolerance and understanding between gay and straight students -- accusing the club of being a vehicle for "homosexual recruitment." Silber denounced the group for "evangelism" and "homosexual militancy" with the purpose of promoting gay sex.

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 the Massachusetts gubernatorial election of 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." In a key interview late in the campaign, Silber was asked by WCVB-TV newscaster Natalie Jacobson to name his weaknesses, and he snarled back that finding his weaknesses was her job, and he did not need to list them for her. After this performance, Silber's poll numbers declined rapidly. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

Death

Boston University announced Silber's death on September 27, 2012. He was 86. At a memorial service on November 29, 2012 the writer Tom Wolfe spoke to the 750 people who gathered, saying that Silber was a man who "couldn't bring himself to flatter."

Further reading

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

Notes

1.^ Provost Jon Westling served as acting president in 1987 while Silber was on sabbatical and again in 1990 while Silber was running for Governor of Massachusetts.

External links

• Boston University's biography of Silber
• Video of Debate between Silber and Noam Chomsky over the Nicaraguan Contras on YouTube and Removed by User as of 10-23-2010 see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChVSYGkLDfU part 1/http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/interviews/86-silber.html Transcript at the Wayback Machine
• 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
• John Silber collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about John Silber in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Academic offices
Preceded by Calvin B. T. Lee (Acting)	Seventh President of Boston University 1971–1996	Succeeded by Jon Westling
Preceded by Jon Westling	President ad interim of Boston University 2002–2003	Succeeded by Aram Chobanian (President Ad Interim)
Preceded by	Chancellor of Boston University 1996–2003	Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Michael Dukakis	Massachusetts Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate 1990 (lost)	Succeeded by Mark Roosevelt