Union discusses RHA council, smoking courtesy campaign

Student Union members expressed concerns Monday night about the creation of a Residence Hall Association Overarching Executive Council at Boston University for Fall 2012.

Towers RHA President Zach Herbert, a College of Engineering sophomore, said the council was approved and should form after presenting a draft constitution.

“This Overarching Executive Council is meant to provide some sort of central leadership to RHAs,” Herbert said. “It is 100 percent internal and 100 percent student run.”

Herbert said the council is expected to implement training programs for RHA members to address a steep learning curve and to create continuity for the organization.

“Sometimes there are issues that take place in every residence hall, and it is much easier to address these issues with one structure,” Herbert said. “The OEC also will address quality-of-life concerns that often occur in more than one residence hall.”

The announcement raised questions among a number of Union members about the council’s relationship with the rest of Union and the possibility of splintered student voice, among other possibilities.

“The discussion that occurred here reflected concerns that the OEC may cause confusion and fragment the student voice,” said Union President Howard Male, a School of Hospitality Administration and School of Management senior.

Male said he is personally concerned that it will be unclear to administrators and students who is responsible for quality-of-life issues, especially when the problems exist beyond residence halls.

“One cohesive project can be implemented to assist all students,” he said. “It’s not necessarily just an RHA issue, and we would want to make sure that a communication channel is established so that issues could be identified.”

Union Vice President Alex Staikos, a SMG sophomore, said the draft constitution was unclear about the role of a faculty advisor in the OEC.

The OEC, Male said, might interfere with Union and make unclear the difference in role of OEC and Union.

“If there is confusion about which body handles something, then neither body has authority and is able to effectively advocate for students,” he said.

The council also aims to address allocation of funds to different residence halls.

“Some residence halls really don’t get enough money to do much, and some get more than they need,” Herbert said. “We’d like to equalize that a little bit.”

However, Herbert said the council aims to operate without any budgeted cost by simply adding a universal executive body to the current RHA system.

“We’re keeping the current system how it is and adding to it,” he said.

At the meeting, Union also reviewed their campaign to increase smoking courtesy on campus.

Vicky Tong, an ENG freshman who heads the smoking courtesy campaign, said she met with Executive Director of Student Activities John Battaglino to discuss the advertising campaign.

She presented a first draft of an advertisement to the Union members with the slogan, “Stand out from the crowd, but not with your cloud.”

“This is the ad they gave us for now,” Tong said. “I’m still communicating with [marketing research] and seeing if we can make more improvements to the ad.”

Union members said they would like to see the advertisement developed to better reflect the message of their campaign.

“Personally, I think there should be a line that says the word ‘courtesy,’” Male said.

The campaign focuses on advocating for smokers to be more courteous to non-smokers about where they smoke. Union, which passed a resolution for the campaign in early December, intends to have it up for when students return in the fall.

“I have been very clear with administrators that I have met with that we look for this to be implemented in the fall,” Male said.

SMG sophomore Caitlin Seele, chairwoman of the gender-neutral housing subcommittee, told Union her final meeting with administration before the year ends is set for next week, but that she will be in Boston over the summer and hopes to develop the housing plans more at that time.

CORRECTION: The original headline said Union proposed the Overarching Executive Council, but this is a separate entity controlled by the Residence Hall Association which was presented to Union.