By Steve Babcock
Boston Intercollegiate Gover-nment (BIG) celebrated its first year in existence Tuesday night at a dinner event that highlighted accomplishments of the past year.
Speakers at the event shed light on forthcoming challenges for student leaders throughout the city.
The conglomerate of student government executive branches from around Boston were joined by Boston City Councilor Michael P. Ross, who has spared no breath in recent weeks on issues between students and the community.
He wasted no time attacking those issues in his remarks, and centered them mostly on Mission Hill, where many Northeastern students reside.
“We have some challenges in the neighborhood that we’re going to have to work together on,” Ross said. “A lady said to me recently that she liked it better when drug dealers lived on Mission Hill – that broke my heart.”
BIG chair and Northeastern Student Government Association President Michael Romano said it will be important for the student governments to work together to bridge the increasing gap between the universities and communities.
“We’re going to look toward a partnership with [Boston Univ-ersity] for outreach programs,” Romano said. “If we pool the resources in this room, we can create huge outreach programs unlike anything we’ve ever done before.”
Showing gratitude for the support from BIG, Ross said after the meeting that administrations also had a hand in the increasing rift with the community following the fallout from the Super Bowl, as well as ongoing concerns about rowdy students on the weekends.
“I’m glad to see the students are taking initiative,” he said. “This group can be a great resource to the community when some administrations are doing better than others (in terms of community outreach policies).”
The dinner also presented a chance for the student leaders, some administrators and community leaders such as Ross to engage in discussion on such hot button issues.
Student Government Assoc-iation Presidential Candidate Andres Vargas and Ross became enlivened over the community issue.
“We’re going to have to find the middle ground, where it’s not Northeastern ‘taking over’ someone’s community,” Vargas said.
Ross, also animated, said many residents were still new to the college students living in the community.
“You have to remember this problem only started three or four years ago,” he said.
Apart from the housing issue, the student leaders and administrators, mostly directors of student life, also took the time to discuss more operational issues such as the academic calendar and orientation.
For Romano, the meeting was a culmination of one of the main missions of BIG when it was established a year ago.
“The more we know about what’s going on at other universities, the better position we are in to make more well-informed decisions,” he said.
Former chair David Bresler from Boston University, who founded the organization, said the organization was exactly what he envisioned “to the T.”
“It’s come an extremely long way,” he said. “We’re almost in a position to start lobbying for student rights from the city council to the U.S. Senate.”
BIG has grown to eight members from its original four last year, and looks to ratify a governing document by the end of this academic year that will set regulations for the group.
