University officials will personally refer between 20 and 25 students to the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR) this week after catching them in the act of partying on Mission Hill last Friday and Saturday.
Ed Klotzbier, vice president for student affairs, and Jeff Doggett, associate director for community affairs, joined City Councilor Michael Ross and state Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez in touring the Mission Hill area. Doggett said the university is trying to send a message to students living on Mission Hill that their behavior is not going to be tolerated by the university.
“The students out there should be embarrassed they represented the school in such a distasteful manner,” Rep. Sanchez said. “It’s a slap in the face not only to the community and the city of Boston, but it’s also a slap in the face to the Board of Trustees and the president of the university who are trying to make the institution a unique and wonderful one for its students.”
Approximately 18 parties were broken up over the course of the weekend, Doggett said. He said not all were hosted by Northeastern students.
Klotzbier said he was disappointed in the lack of respect the students displayed towards officers.
“It was a little disconcerting to walk into an apartment with a uniformed police officer and have Northeastern students who were definitely drinking and were definitely underage, to be disrespecting and challenging authority,” Klotzbier said.
One of the incidents Klotzbier said he responded to, along with Boston Police, was at the apartment of what Klotzbier described as a very drunk underage Northeastern student who told the uniformed police officers that his father was a lawyer and he would have lawyers “all over them” for walking into his house.
Although students who live on Mission Hill said they do find it gets rowdy on the weekends, they said university officials went too far.
“I’ve only been here for a few weeks, but from what I have seen so far, it can be loud,” said Meg Ronsani, a junior political science major. “I think they should leave it up to [Boston] police since we are not even on campus.”
The Student Code of Conduct, Klotzbier said, applies to students on and off campus. He also said even if only Boston Police were to respond to a call concerning Northeastern students, the students would eventually be reported to OSCCR regardless if Northeastern officials were patrolling the area.
The message university officials said they are trying to get out to students living in residential neighborhoods such as Mission Hill is that they cannot get away from the severity of their actions.
“We are not going to let students give Northeastern a bad reputation in that area,” Klotzbier said.
City Councilor Ross, along with Councilor Jerry McDermott, recently proposed an ordinance that would allow city departments such as Inspectional Services and Boston Police to receive the names and contact information of all students living off campus and attending all Boston universities. The City Council will hold a hearing Thursday to discuss the ordinance.
As one of the next steps in the community building process, President Richard Freeland and Mayor Thomas M. Menino spoke Tuesday and agreed to work collectively on the issue, Doggett said.
“My folks met with Northeastern this morning and they assured us that things will go much better this weekend. President Freeland is trying to work with the city and make sure the students are aware that they have a responsibility if they live in the neighborhoods of Boston and we’re not going to tolerate their partying or disruption of quality of life in those neighborhoods,” Menino said to reporters Tues-day.
Doggett and Klotzbier both said they would go out to the Mission Hill area again until the problems start to improve.
“We are not saying we don’t want students to have fun,” Klotzbier said. “We want students to have fun as long as it’s responsible.”