A Boston University director accused students in London during the summer of lying about being bitten by bedbugs in their dorm and said they would be banned from studying abroad again if they spoke about the insects, according to the students.
A BU junior said during her first night in the BU dorm Crofton in late May, she received small, red marks, each a centimeter wide, around her feet, legs and ankles. When she spoke with the associate director of British Programmes a month later after repeated unsuccessful attempts to meet, she was accused of making the marks herself, said the student, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of not being allowed to study abroad again.
The junior said she noticed the bites became larger and puffier and had spread over her entire body, but she and her roommate, Newbury College junior Michelle Beaton, did not complain until the second week. After their complaints, housekeepers sprayed the room using an aerosol insecticide and changed bed linens.
Housekeeping and exterminators did not find evidence of a bedbug infestation in the students’ room, said Joe Finkhouse, international programs director of institutional relations, in an email to BU spokesman Colin Riley, to whom comments about the issue were directed.
“They wouldn’t admit we had bedbugs,” Beaton said. “We had all the symptoms of bedbugs.”
The students said the aerosol insecticide worked briefly, but eventually they began to notice more marks. Bedbugs do not spread diseases, nor are their bites particularly harmful to people.
“I was using makeup on my legs,” the BU junior said. “It was all over me. It was horrible.”
After the first spraying, the bugs got out of control, and she began seeing them, she said.
The junior said she tried contacting British Programmes Associate Director Alison Campbell after her room was first sprayed, but Campbell did not hear her case until about a month after. When they spoke, the BU junior said Campbell accused her of making the marks herself and said she “wasn’t allowed to tell anyone” about the situation.
Riley said he does not know if the accusations about Campbell are true.
“If someone had an unhappy experience with an administrator, we regret it,” he said.
The Daily Free Press sent several messages over the last week to Campbell to verify her alleged comments. Campbell did not respond but forwarded one of the emails to Finkhouse, according to Riley. Finkhouse did not comment on the questions.
The BU junior said Campbell told her specialists were handling the situation, but she later learned they were the building’s house cleaners.
“Most of us felt that BU tended to blame the students for the problems that occurred until a parent called from the [United] States to complain,” said Sasha Goldstein, a program participant and College of Fine Arts senior, in an email. “It felt as though they didn’t trust or believe us.”
On a Friday two weeks after the first spraying, Beaton said they called to get the room sprayed again. They said they were told because the case was not an emergency, nothing could be done until Monday, and the girls should sleep in another room in their apartment.
“They actually had the audacity to [tell us to] sleep in our kitchen,” Beaton said.
Instead, the students stayed at a hotel over the weekend.
Beaton said BU British Programmes Student Life Manager Mona Patel came to the room over the weekend and did not confirm or deny the existence of bedbugs, but told them nothing could be done until Monday.
The students said their parents called BU’s main campus to complain. The BU junior said Student Life and Housing Assistant Director Michael Oliver hung up on her mother. Oliver did not respond to several email messages from the Free Press.
Housekeepers came back to the room to spray insecticide again and lay clean sheets that Monday. BU then moved the students to a faculty flat at Lexam Gardens.
Britain saw a 52 percent increase in complaints to a pest-control company regarding bedbugs over the past year, according to a July 5 Guardian article.
The students said administrators told them their incident was the first time they had to deal with a bedbug complaint.
“Pests are not an ongoing problem in the London program or any other program site,” Finkhouse said in an email. “In fact, this was the first incident of its kind in London in over nine years. Over 4,000 students have participated in the London programs during that time. There have been no further reports since June.”
After moving, the students said they sent their clothing and other belongings to a nearby dry-cleaning service.
Beaton said her total cleaning bill came to around $600, and the BU junior said her bill was about $750. BU reimbursed her in August, but only after her father called Campbell several times, she said.
“They thought I made up the dry-cleaning bill,” she said.
Finkhouse said BU properly reimbursed the girls and that BU paid for costs it would not normally cover.
“BU did not bill the students for the cost of extermination,” Finkhouse said. “Other costs, such as the cost of laundering clothes, would ordinarily be paid by the student. In this case, London reimbursed the students for the cost of laundry, as well as the cost of the transfer to their new flat.”
Finkhouse said the case is an isolated incident and was handled appropriately by the London program staff.
“Fortunately, pest problems are extremely uncommon in our programs abroad,” he said. “We’re satisfied that the situation was handled well and quickly under the circumstances.”
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This sounds pretty typical of the BU administration I knew when I was a student there too. The immature students are always at fault… never the all-knowing, responsible administration. Maybe one day BU will wake up and realize this is why alumni don’t give back to the school.