Tensions between Boston University students and Brookline residents have subsided after weeks of meetings with leaders from the groups and police, according to Student Union leaders who gave a report at a General Assembly meeting last night in the Photonics Center.
Union City Affairs Director Jesse Kramer rode with Brookline police the night of Oct. 26 and said officers were generally reasonable when dealing with students while he was with them.
“They said they’ve accomplished what they wanted to accomplish — the streets are quiet,” the College of Arts and Sciences senior said. “Hopefully it will be a little more bearable for the students who live there.”
Kramer also said the Union will hold another meeting between Brookline community activists and BU students next week.
Union President Adil Yunis said although Brookline issues are going in a “very successful direction,” the Union will continue to work on increasing communication between students and Brookline residents, who have complained of students’ rowdy behavior.
“We want to get familiar faces [of BU students] out there [in Brookline communities] so that we can avoid a situation like this at move-in time next year,” said Yunis, a CAS senior.
The Union also announced it will support a bill requiring all colleges in Massachusetts to have a sexual assault advisory council, said Campus Safety Committee Chairman Leo Gameng.
The GA approved a request from the Campus Safety Committee to send letters supporting the bill to members of the Joint Committee of Higher Education.
“We need to get this letter out to help BU get the ball rolling,” said Gameng, a CAS junior. “We want to show our commonwealth that we are inhabitants of Boston and that we actually care about what happens here.”
The letter will represent all BU students and will be signed by all GA members.
In other matters, Academic Affairs Committee Chairman Matt Seidel reported the proposal his committee drafted to revamp academic advising would not be voted on by the GA because the committee is changing its approach.
Instead of submitting a proposal to fix advising on a university-wide level, the Academic Affairs Committee will start on a smaller scale. The committee will first focus on the CAS advising program, and then expand the proposal to include other schools.
“There are different views among schools about how to go about fixing advising,” said Seidel, a CAS sophomore. “If we go ahead with the proposal as it is now, it will meet resistance. I’d rather see it pass piece by piece with individual schools than go for it all at once and see it fail.”
In the Executive Board’s report, Yunis announced the resignation of Residence Life Committee Chairman Andy Ortolan, and asked the committee for another nomination to the position, to be confirmed at the next GA meeting.
Yunis also introduced his new Executive Intern, Natasha Bochenski, a CAS freshman.
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