Northeastern faced exceptional opposition over the last several years to expansion and student overflow in surrounding communities like Mission Hill, Roxbury and Fenway. Mission Hill residents have recently expressed their anger at Northeastern University for failing to follow through with building two new residence halls that would help bring students back to campus.
Their complaints describe students residing in their neighborhoods as disrespectful and less-than-ideal neighbors. And who can blame them? Walk through Mission Hill on any given Friday night and you’ll hear the bumping of stereos, followed the next morning by the sight of empty beer boxes strewn about on the sidewalk.
This is what the NU P.L.E.D.G.E. is suppose to be addressing. It’s an initiative including a video that incoming freshman are required to watch upon their first login to myNEU. In the video Ed Klotzbier, vice president and dean of student affairs, discusses the importance of students respecting the neighborhoods around Northeastern.
But if the NU P.L.E.D.G.E. is an attempt to crack down on students who live and party on the Hill, this video lasting only a few minutes is a weak attempt. Yes, they are cracking down and punishing students who act belligerent in these neighborhoods on the weekend, but Northeastern is expecting students to behave themselves because “we said so.” Didn’t a majority of us have to complete AlcoholEdu? That worked well.
Considering the severe problems the university has faced in recent years, the NU P.L.E.D.G.E. is not getting to the heart of the matter. This is merely a quick fix, a way for the university to claim that yes, it is doing something to address the problem, without actually doing anything. But university officials know, and students know, that college students are going to find parties. They’re going to be loud, obnoxious and get drunk and this won’t change as long as there are such things as students and alcohol.
Northeastern is not addressing the real problem with the NU P.L.E.D.G.E.: university officials not living up to their promises. The university was unable to follow through with plans they made to build two additional residence halls. The dorms are currently at capacity and only 56 percent of students live on campus according to Renata Nyul, director of communications at Northeastern.
Northeastern made a promise to the community to bring more students back to campus in their 10-year Master Plan. They acknowledge they can’t do this right now due to lack of funds and debt, but continue to over accept students. Despite its promise to the community to have approximately 15,000 students enrolled at a time, 15,699 students are currently enrolled. An extra 699 students may not seem like a big deal, but at a time when the campus cannot physically house anyone else, this is a lot of additional residents for tiny communities like the Hill.
It isn’t fair to punish the surrounding communities for Northeastern’s mistakes, but it’s not fair to punish the students either. Not every student is disruptive, and we have a right to live where we want, whether it’s because we were denied housing or because on-campus living is too expensive.
Northeastern is taking the focus away from the real issue. Either build more dorms or stop accepting so many students, but don’t implicate the student body and the surrounding communities for the consequences of administrative decisions.
<em><strong>This article has been modified to reflect the following correction: The original version of this article incorrectly stated that 52 percent of students live on campus. Currently, 56 percent live on campus.</strong></em>
