For the first time ever, college government officials from Boston University, Boston College, Harvard University, Northeastern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will meet to discuss the political power of Boston-area students at the first meeting of Boston Integrated Government tonight in the School of Management.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will speak at the meeting, which starts at 5:30 p.m.
Student Union vice president of Academic Affairs Dave Bresler, a BIG organizer, said there the Boston City Council will also pass a resolution asking ‘that the city council recognizes, honors and encourages [the] inaugural meeting of an intercollegiate student government made up of student leaders throughout the city of Boston.’
The group’s focus, Bresler said, is to increase registered student voters on all participating campuses and encourage them to vote in the elections next November. An increased number of student voters would help to turn BIG into a lobbyist group for students, Bresler said.
‘If every campus registered 10 percent of students, that is 7,500 students registered,’ Bresler said. ‘Once that happens we have legitimacy – we would be the largest voting bloc [in the Boston area].’
Northeastern University Student Government Association president of NU’s Student Government Association Richard Schwabacher, who will speak at today’s city council meeting, said an increase in the youth vote would have a major effect on area politicians.
‘A lot of time the youth vote is consistently the lowest voting in any state,’ he said. ‘We need to do a better job getting kids our age to vote and take part in local politics.’
BIG participants also hope to inform students of important political issues they face and how to solve them, Bresler said. Bresler said many students are currently unaware of possible city regulations which could affect students, including a proposed idea to have graduating seniors pay off parking tickets before receiving their diplomas and ‘Night Owl’ service on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Schwabacher agreed with Bresler and said all of the Boston-area schools have common problems and grievances.
‘There are things that affect all the Boston campuses,’ Schwabacher said. ‘The Night Owl service is one thing that could have a detrimental effect on college students.’
Schwabacher also said bringing together numerous area schools will have a profound impact on their ability to make change in the city.
‘It is easier to organize and implement the program when you have more than one person at the table trying to perpetuate it,’ he said.
The five colleges currently involved would become a ‘security council’ of sorts, according to Bresler, who also said he hopes more Boston-area schools will eventually become involved.
A planned BIG fall meeting would be when the group would create an official constitution and charter, Bresler said. Meetings would then occur more frequently during the year, though he gave no specifics as to how often all of the schools’ representatives would meet.
The meeting in the fall will also help give the group ideas as to how BIG will actually work, Schwabacher said.
‘[We need to] come up with some kind of charter that makes sense and get some kind of general direction as to where this can go,’ he said.
Schwabacher said it will be important to meet a few times during the year but there would be no need to even meet monthly.
‘We can do things on a more frequent basis,’ he said. ‘I don’t think it should be every week maybe twice a semester but we could have sub-committees come out of this. There is a world of possibility.’
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