Eagleionline

I decided to start the "Waterboarding IS torture" Facebook Group after reading a lengthy and poignant email written by Professor Zyg Plater to his faculty colleagues, in which he expressed all that is wrong with Dean Garvey's decision to invite Attorney General Mukasey to deliver the 2008 BCLS Commencement address and receive the school's Founders' Medal.

While the process alone appears to have been deeply flawed, the substance of the decision and the message it sends to the BCLS Community raises fundamental questions about the identity of the institution. The Facebook group gives students, faculty, and alumni an opportunity to discuss and debate this issue in a manner not available before the advent of online social networking sites.

Waterboarding - a form of simulated drowning that causes its victims to fear imminent death - is torture as the earth is round. Attorney General Mukasey has had ample opportunity to say so outright, and has refused. His professional achievements and intellect aside, he is the current embodiment of some of the most flawed, retrograde, and inhumane policies and legal positions taken by the Bush Administration, and his equivocations on the issue simply do not wash. Nonetheless, Dean Garvey "cannot imagine a better role model for the Class of
2008.

I believe this to be a seminal moment in our school's history. Our Mission
Statement reads: "We encourage our students to develop their own individual commitment to others and to explore those themes which are central to the Jesuit tradition: the dignity of the human person, the advancement of the common good and compassion for the poor." It also expresses the goal of preparing students for a "constructive, responsible, and loving use of their knowledge." How these high principles can be reconciled with awarding Attorney General Mukasey our Founders' Medal and calling him the ultimate role model for the Class of 2008 is beyond comprehension.

The words in our Mission Statement either mean something or they don't. Our ideal role model is either the late Father Robert Drinan, our former Dean and a lifelong advocate for human rights, or Attorney General Mukasey - it cannot be both. It appears that those of us who believe that Boston College Law School belongs to Father Drinan's legacy may be fooling ourselves; perhaps we should take our time, passion, and money elsewhere, and spend it fighting more worthy fights and supporting truer causes.

I think it is time for the BCLS Community to have a frank and open discussion about whether it stands for anything at all. If the conversation doesn't happen on Facebook, that's just fine - but it needs to happen somewhere.

(Excerpts posted: http://www.eagleionline.com/news/2008/2/1/mood-over-mukasey-changes.html at Eagleionline <http://www.eagleionline.com/>)

- Dan Roth '04