Boston College bans Ayers teleconference

BOSTON, March 31 (UPI) -- Boston College says it refused to allow a planned satellite speech by University of Illinois Professor William Ayers out of fear for students' safety.

The move by BC officials followed a similar refusal to let the University of Illinois at Chicago education professor and former member of the 1960s radical anti-war group Weather Underground address students in person on the campus, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday.

Administrators refused to allow both the Ayers visit and the teleconference "out of concern for the safety and well-being of our students and respect for the local community where the alleged actions of the Weather Underground continue to reverberate today."

Boston College officials said they had received hundreds of complaints about Ayers since a radio talk show host blasted his scheduled visit. Many critics, including Boston police officers, threatened to protest the event. The Globe said many of the critics cited the alleged involvement of the Weather Underground with the 1970 killing of a Boston police officer.

"It's frustrating to see them cave in to unwarranted hysteria, and base their decision on a crime in which Bill Ayers was never charged or convicted," Melissa Roberts of the College Democrats of Boston College told the newspaper.