BU regulations push students off campus

Eager to escape sour-faced security guards, unsightly cinder block walls and rodent-infested dorm rooms, many Boston University students choose to brave high rents and endless searching to live off-campus. Despite the advantages for students, however, many neighbors take issue with the student migration to Allston/Brighton, Brookline and Kenmore Square.

Many students said the university’s unfair policies convinced them to move off-campus, where they can enjoy a more open environment. College of General Studies sophomore Anne Sheridan said her apartment on Commonwealth Avenue gives her the kind of freedom she desires.

‘Although I understand the importance of security on campus, the BU policies are very strict compared to other universities’ policies,’ she said. ‘My friends at other schools, like Harvard, throw huge parties in their dorms and pay no consequences. They blatantly roll kegs into their dorms and the university protects them.’

College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Dan Hoffer said many factors contribute to the inadequacy of BU’s housing.

‘BU doesn’t do enough to make on-campus housing attractive,’ he said. ‘The rooms are small and lack privacy it’s more economic for me to live off-campus.’

BU Assistant Director of Off-Campus Housing Jeaninerie Belcastro said students have the right to move off-campus.

‘We encourage students to know their options,’ Belcastro said. ‘We have a fair that we host each year regarding off-campus living options. If students want to live off campus, they certainly can.’

The student flight from BU housing to apartments in Allston-Brighton and Kenmore Square has led to rising rents in some cases, as students paying for apartments with the help of their parents can afford a sharply increased monthly fee.

According to information compiled from the Boston Redevelopment Authority, apartment rental prices in East Boston went from $950 per month in 1998 to $1,200 per month in 2002. Similarly, tenants in Roxbury paid $838 per month in 1998 and $1,500 per month in 2002.

Leah Johnson, a CGS sophomore and Sheridan’s roommate, said Boston is one of the most expensive cities in the country, and high rents simply come with the territory.

‘The prices are what you would expect anywhere in Boston: expensive,’ she said. ‘At home in Colorado, my friends pay $300 or less a month for rent. I now pay $550 a month to share a room, and next year I will pay $750.’

Sheridan, Johnson and their two other housemates pay $2,400 per month for a three-bedroom apartment in Allston.

Despite tenants’ gripes with skyrocketing rent, Boston City Councilor Jerry McDermott (Allston-Brighton) said affordable housing is available for those who need it.

‘Young professionals end up buying their first homes, students move back into luxury on-campus housing and families move to the suburbs where the school system is better for their children,’ he said.

Recent BU graduate Maureen White, the project organizer at the Fenway CDC, pointed out the deficiencies in BU’s housing system, which push students off campus.

‘It’s not the students’ fault for wanting to live off-campus; it’s the university’s fault for not keeping them on campus,’ she said. ‘Kids want to live without things like strict guest policies and the university should listen to their needs. The way it is now, landlords jack up prices and they get away with it.’

White does not put the blame solely on the university, however.

‘Students need to pressure their universities to make them happy,’ she said. ‘The way to make a change is to get students involved, but that’s a tough issue they are always moving around.’

Fenway CDC board member and Audubon Circle resident Kathy Greenbough agreed that the transient nature of students poses a problem for the neighborhood.

‘We don’t want people to be here for two years and leave,’ she said. ‘We want stable residents.’

Greenbough said the relationship between BU and her Beacon Street neighborhood extends back nearly 20 years. In 1984, she said, the university signed an agreement with the city to sell back 28 buildings it had bought in 1982 as part of a quid-pro-quo deal that allowed the university to acquire the Armory, the current site of the Student Village project. BU agreed at the time to sell 21 of those properties in the open market, but it has not yet done so, she said.

However, a 1991 BRA finding ruled that BU no longer had to divest the properties in accordance with a new agreement with the Audobon Circle Neighborhood Association.

‘It is high time to divest properties on Beacon Street,’ Greenbough said. ‘Selling those properties in the open market would open them up to long-term, stable residents. This would help our neighborhood grow to become a healthier, more diverse environment.’

The short-lived rentals of students are not the only problem, according to Greenbough. Students do not involve themselves in the community enough, she said, and often show disregard for other residents, she said.

‘Across the street from me there are many students, and none of them contribute to the neighborhood at all,’ she said. ‘They yell and litter everywhere. It is not a compatible mix of students in a family neighborhood.’

To alleviate the problem, Greenbough and other inhabitants of Audubon Circle headed to the city’s housing authorities.

‘We have been reaching out to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, who is trying to work with the city and the universities to implement divestiture,’ she said. ‘But BU wants to hang on to this property as best they can.’

Greenbough said she is thrilled that BU is doing something about the housing crises by building more on-campus housing, but that there is still a long way to go.

She said she hopes a ‘new university president comes along and honors this divestiture agreement.’

Fenway CDC executive director Carl Koechlin said he does not think BU will provide solutions to the housing crisis in Boston. He said organizations like the Fenway CDC have always had a troubled relationship with BU.

‘BU is powerful and connected,’ he said. ‘Organizations like ours have not been as effective as we have hoped we could be with respect to their manifest destiny.’

With the Beacon Street properties, Koechlin said, ‘BU, without batting an eye, had made commitments to the community that it has not upheld.’

Koechlin explained how he feels BU gets away with not living up to their promises. The city feels that the institutions of higher learning provide a great benefit to Boston, so it goes overboard in supporting BU as one of the largest, most powerful institutions in the city, he said.

‘The university has been skilled in drumming up support,’ Koechlin said. ‘It is a machine that is very politically astute and is pushing the right buttons.’

Like White, Koechlin does not solely blame students for finding other places to live. He mainly blames the institution for not providing for them.

‘It is going to take a very concerted effort on our part to accomplish a relationship where we have the respect of BU,’ he said. ‘As of now, the university does not seem to be driven to cooperate with its urban environment.’