Student Government Association executive board members met with City Councilors Michael Ross and Jerry McDermott Nov. 18 to discuss revisions made to the University Accountability Ordinance.
SGA President Bill Durkin and Vice President for Student Affairs Erin McFadzen left the 45-minute meeting at City Hall with a revised copy of the ordinance, which no longer specifically names Northeastern and no longer contains the section requiring the addresses of all college students living off campus in Boston to be given to the Boston Police and the Inspectional Services Department.
“It was what we expected,” Durkin said. “They removed most of the objectionable parts of the ordinance.”
The ordinance still requires universities to collect the off- campus data and provide the information within 45 days of the beginning of each semester to the mayor of Boston and the City Council.
Attempts to reach Ross were unsuccessful Tuesday.
Keeping with earlier statements, Ross said in a press release the purpose of the ordinance was to make universities more accountable for their students.
McDermott, the other author of the ordinance, said he was optimistic student behavior will improve as a result of the ordinance.
“We are sending a clear message — Enough is enough,” McDermott said in a press release. “I am positive that universities in the city of Boston will now clamp down on rowdy off-campus student behavior.”
While the city puts its focus on off-campus student behavior, on campus, Durkin said Ross thanked the SGA members for their participation.
“The Northeastern Student Government took the lead in this and showed we are one of the best organized Student Governments in Boston,” Durkin said.
Although she said portions of the ordinance would be helpful for universities to use in emergency cases, McFadzen said it would be best for students if there was not an accountability ordinance.
“Parts of the ordinance can be beneficial. SGA’s next job is to follow up with the university,” McFadzen said. “This has shown students have an immense amount of power and I think they need to become more involved because it does affect us.”
Boston Intercollegiate Government (BIG) President Michael Romano said although parts of the ordinance can be useful for universities, the overall impact of the ordinance is still negative.
“It doesn’t matter how it is written,” Romano said. “The legislation still does a disservice to students in the community. There is no limit to what they could request, you have to interpret [the ordinance] like an attorney.”
Section 10.4 in the revised ordinance states reports and statistics supplied to the city of Boston “shall include, but not be limited to” the information of students living off campus.
Another section in the ordinace, 10.3, said the directory of information should be assembeled by the schools in such a way that any authorized person can access and receive the information.
“Nothing has changed other than the level of ambiguous language,” Romano said. “There is no change in substance, and to indicate otherwise is to be both misleading and incorrect. Personally as the chair [of BIG] you can say the same thing twice differently and still mean the same thing. Until city councilors begin to invest less time into looking good and more time addressing the roots of the problem rather than the byproduct, then they won’t be able to impact the culture.”
Romano said he is writing a letter to Ross to try to speak with him before the ordinance is voted on by the City Council by the end of the year, but said he is worried about the outcome.
“Unless average students begin to speak up, then this will be pushed through with ease,” Romano said.
