Some of Boston University’s community neighbors, including members of the City Council, said they support the Student Union’s proposed Guest Policy changes, endorsements which BU Free and the Union hope will buttress their arguments.
BU Free President Ethan Clay, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he hopes to utilize input from City Councilors Brian Honan (Allston, Brighton) and Mike Ross (Back Bay, Fenway) and various established community groups to garner support for the Union’s proposal. The 78-page Guest Visitation Policy report was presented to President Jon Westling last week.
“We feel that the community has a strong interest in BU because we play a big part in their lives because of our location,” Clay said. “We are also looking into what’s happened in the past.”
Ross, who has been in contact with the Union, has offered his support for the change, arguing the current policy drives students off campus and into surrounding communities, where they create disturbances.
“No solution is going to take place without some conversation and collaborative activity between my office and the University in terms of student behavior off campus,” Ross said. “No campus policy should go without recognizing that the more pressure [the University] puts on students who are on campus only causes students to go off campus and party.”
CAS freshman Sumit Mattal, one of six members on the University Perspectives Guest Policy committee, suggested less stringent policies would make it easier for students to socialize on campus, an idea Ross echoed.
“The more strict and punitive the on-campus policies are, the more it will push students to blow off steam off campus,” Ross said. “Any policy that doesn’t recognize that is flawed, and I think any responsible university should look well beyond its own borders when it comes to the behavior of its students.”
Allston Civic Association President Paul Berkeley agreed student behavior off campus is an important part of community involvement, but was cautious about offering any community involvement in relation to Guest Policy changes.
“Students tend to keep later hours than local residents,” Berkeley said. “If their behavior disrupts residents, then it does have an impact on the community.
“The institution has a responsibility to create and offer enough housing for students who want to enroll. But if the student chooses not to, that’s their decision. I don’t want to be a critic when there is a solution.”
However, Ross said the University has a responsibility to students who live both on and off campus.
“When you propagate unreasonable policies, you’re only going to incur students that go off campus and participate in activities that disrupt communities,” Ross said. “That, I think is a negligent policy.”
Ross said he disagreed with BU Chancellor John Silber’s statements in a letter written to The Daily Free Press last week, which said, “If students wish to be adults, they can arrange their trysting places on their own. There is also the ever-present option of living off campus after the freshman year.”
“Here you have students who are adults, who are very much functioning on their own and are very responsible and should be treated as such,” Ross said.
“That’s sending the message that once you cross our campus gates that you have to behave in such and such a manner,” Ross continued. “The on-campus policies are clearly in need of review. To fail to acknowledge that is a failure of leadership.”
Mattal said he attended an Audubon Circle Neighborhood Association meeting Tuesday night and spoke with members about the advantages of changing the policy. In addition, he said he has contacted several prominent community members and plans on asking more for their input.
The Audubon Circle area includes the Landmark Center on Park Drive and space along Beacon Street, which includes a majority of BU’s South Campus.
“My first goal is to have them hear me,” Mattal said.
At the Audubon Circle meeting, those in attendance did not immediately express a concern, Mattal said.
“But once I spoke, they realized how involved they are,” he said.
Clay said this is an opportunity for community members to “voice their grievances.”
“I spoke with Brian Honan and he gave me some names of prominent members in the Allston-Brighton community to talk to,” Mattal said. “I’m also doing a lot of research and finding out how many students we have in the Allston-Brighton area.”
Mattal said he is also trying to contact BU alumni who were opponents of the Guest Policy.
“Back then, students didn’t reach out to the community,” Mattal said. “We want to make sure we do that.”