Campus, News

Union efforts are long-term

For some Boston University Student Union leaders, success does not equal completion this semester.

The projects the Union is pursuing are ambitious,so a lot of work could be done without students seeing many concrete results, Union President Matt Seidel said.’

‘The most important things that you can change at BU are also the most controversial,’ Seidel, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, said. ‘There’s very serious debate that goes on for a while during these things.’

Among the Union’s top priorities will be advancing a medical amnesty policy, which is meant to encourage students to seek help even if they have been drinking alcohol or using other substances banned by BU. At the end of last semester, Union members brought a proposal of how they think the policy should work to Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore.

The first part of the proposal states that if a student falls victim to sexual assault while using banned substances, that student will not be ‘subject to judicial sanctions.’

The second part of the proposal seeks amnesty for underage students who receive medical attention because of alcohol consumption. Students would ideally be able to fill out a form to apply for a complete pardon of judicial action.

Seidel said Elmore did not get back to him before the end of last semester. The initiative depends mainly on Elmore’s response before the proposal can go through the many more steps necessary to become finalized.

Elmore said in an interview with the Daily Free Press in December that ‘a great deal’ of what Union calls for with this policy is already in place.

‘I think that what’s been great is that it pushed forth a conversation so that we can give people a better sense as to how our disciplinary system actually does work,’ he said. ‘I look forward to more conversation about it and to see where we might go in fashioning any sort of communication plan, and, if necessary, a policy.’

Medical Amnesty Task Force point woman Stacy Fontana said she is frustrated with how slowly the administration is acting on the proposal.

‘I’m beginning to become seriously suspicious that the administration is just pretending to take us seriously and hope that the issue gets dropped once we graduate,’ Fontana, a

CAS and College of Communication junior, said.

Seidel said if Elmore has not responded by the end of the month, he will address the policy at the University Council Committee on Student Life and Policies meeting, which typically takes place in late January or early February. Elmore is chairman of the committee, and Seidel shares a seat in the committee with Union Vice President Paula Griffin.

In addition to medical amnesty, the Union plans to devote much of its attention to improving the CAS advising system. This project is a response to student complaints that can be found in the advising report linked from the Union’s website.

‘Right now, with academic advising, the Union’s goal for this semester is, to black and white, just say what the problem is, what the solution is and how we’re going to get there,’ Seidel said.

The Academic Affairs Committee submitted the original report last year, but the First Year Committee Task Force will be in charge of compiling a new report.

After Union submits an academic advising report to administrators, Union lacks the power to see the changes through, Academic Affairs Committee Chairman James Sappenfield said.’

‘We don’t exactly know the answer, and the end result is above our heads,’ Sappenfield, a CAS and School of Management junior, said. ‘The administration has the ball and they have to run with it.’

In terms of tangible achievements to expect from the Union, Seidel said he thinks the Source Guide website, which was supposed to be operational last fall, will go live this semester. Source Guide will provide students with more information while registering for classes, through professor reviews, course syllabi and detailed class descriptions.

However, Director of Networked Information Services Richard Mendez said the Source Guide website ‘is not close to completion.’

‘We’re just really to the wall with normal services right now,’ he said.

‘ Seidel also expects that the BU Collaborative Degree Program website, meant to serve as a one-stop reference where students in every BU college can learn what they need to do to double major across undergraduate schools, to be launched this semester.

Other Union priorities include mending the dining points system, developing a sustainability minor, educating students about how they can be green and researching and testing of e-books.

Website | More Articles

This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.

Comments are closed.