Silber Declines Faculty's Retirement Plan

As Boston University (B.U.) students return from vacation this weekend, they'll have a lot of news to catch up on.

On December 18 the B.U. faculty voted by a two-to-one margin to urge the dismissal of university president John R. Silber, and last week B.U. announced a $925 increase in tuition and fees, raising annual costs to $8,220.

The faculty vote calling for Silber's ouster is expected to have little immediate impact because it is the board of trustees, not the faculty, that hires and fires the president.

The 45 trustees, most of whom avoid reporters, are thought to support--and be dominated by--Silber. Arthur G.B. Metcalf, chairman of the trustees, strongly supports Silber, and at least one professor considers them "Siamese twins."

Robert C. Bergenheim, a former trustee and now vice president for labour and public relations, said yesterday, "The vote of the faculty did not make a deep impression, if it made one at all, on administrators or Dr. Silber particularly."

"I don't know of any trustee who's even twitching," he added.

The faculty vote was 456 for dismissal and 215.5 opposed, under a system in which full-time faculty members had one vote and part-time and honorary faculty members had one-half vote.

The day before the faculty vote 19 university deans and department heads signed a statement supporting Silber and urging a "return to reason on the campus."

S.M. Miller, a B.U. professor of sociology and activist in the group seeking to oust Silber, said yesterday the faculty vote was a significant victory and added that the move to unseat Silber is gaining momentum.

Many professors, students, and staff employees oppose Silber because they say he runs the university "more like a prison than like an institution of higher education"--for example, that he ignores their advice, that he punishes those who criticize him, and that he mismanages the academic side--and probably other sides as well--of the university.

Silber has conceded that he has not been able to meet the demands of all sectors of the university, but says that because of B.U.'s financial constraints he must necessarily displease many students and professors. Silber says that if he really were autocratic there would be no dissent.

B.U. administrators say they expect an unfavorable reaction to the tuition increase when students return to classes Monday, but they are bolstered by what they believe was an overall favorable segment about Silber on the CBS Television program "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday.

Silber is by nature articulate and combatative and at times in the interview Mike Wallace appeared to be interviewing himself. Bergenheim said he received more than 200 telegrams and mailgrams--plus innumerable phone calls--in support of Silber following the "Sixty Minutes" broadcast.