By Marc Larocque

As students repopulated campus, some wondered why Roxbury residents protested this summer against hiring practices for the Parcel 18 residence hall project.

According to data recently received by The News through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), Northeastern is not meeting the standards of the Boston Residents Jobs Policy for the residence hall project.

The policy, a good-faith agreement between the university and the community, states that at least 50 percent of the total employee worker hours in each trade should be Boston residents; at least 25 percent of the total employee worker hours in each trade should be minorities; and at least 10 percent of the total employee worker hours in each trade should be by women.

“There have been a lot of questions on the Boston Jobs Policy,” Gerald Autler, senior project manager at the BRA, said to The News in July. “But NU has gone beyond that in the goals it has committed to.”

As of Aug. 26, Northeastern has used 21.2 percent resident work hours for the the Parcel 18 project, according to BRA employment statistics.

Total work hours for women and minorities also do not meet the standards: 23.6 percent of the total work hours on the site were accounted by minorities and 2.5 percent by women. Of the 24 trades partitioned among 12 contractors at the project, 13 don’t meet the policy’s standards for minority work hours.

“Very rarely do the standards get met, especially on the larger projects,” said Brooks Woodson, director of the Boston Resident Jobs Policy. “Most projects achieve close to the goals for minority workers and rarely achieve the goals for residents and woman. But we push each developer and contractor to hit the goals. The statistics don’t tell the whole story.”

The Lower Roxbury Residents Leadership, an advocacy group for citizens of the neighborhood south of Columbus Avenue, protested the hiring practices this summer outside President Joseph Aoun’s office at Columbus Place.

After about two hours of protesting, university officials granted them a meeting with administration the next day, to which the advocacy group invited a member of The News staff. At the beginning of the meeting, however, the reporter was escorted out by Northeastern security.

From that point on, the Lower Roxbury Residents Leadership refused to speak to The News.

City Councilor Chuck Turner, who supported the Lower Roxbury Residents Leadership, said the group made some gains through the meeting, but did not specify how many residents were hired as a result.

“The percentage for Boston residents really has some way to go,” Turner said.

He added that Northeastern officials, including President Aoun, have prevented an effective dialogue.

“The problem is that the president isn’t meeting with residents and enforcing the community benefits,” he said. “I’m insulted that President Aoun still won’t meet with the representatives of Lower Roxbury.”

Since the beginning of the construction process, Northeastern has taken some steps to hire community workers.

Joseph Warren, a representative for Northeastern’s Government Relations and Community Affairs Office, visited three local housing developments – the Alice Taylor housing development, Whittier Street Apartments and Roxse Homes – to look for workers who were already part of unions, said Lula Drayton, secretary for Walsh Brothers, the project’s leading contractor.

Since Northeastern decided to make the Parcel 18 residence hall construction a union job, the contractors, not the university, have decided who is hired, Drayton said.

Northeastern has a referral program through Walsh Brothers. Of almost 140 people who have signed up for the program, eight have been hired, Drayton said. Since the summer protests, the percent of total minority work hours have increased, but the percent of total resident work hours has decreased from 22 percent to 20 percent in a period from June 22 to Aug. 24, according to statistics received from Wal Brothers.

Robert Gittens, vice president of public affairs, wrote a full-page letter that was printed in the Boston Baystate Banner, informing the community of the Youth Development Program, support of the Boston Residents Jobs Policy, and the business to come with the hotel.

The hotel “will provide approximately 50 new full time jobs to local residents – more with support from the community,” Gittens said. “[W]e will continue to work with residents and elected officials who show they want to work with us in an honest, civil and respectful way.”

George Morrison, chair of the Parcel 18 Task Force, a group which claims to have held dialogue about the land for more than 40 years, said Gittens’ letter was “full of lies” and that he is considering filing an injunction for the residence hall project.

“They think they can do it by themselves and that if we are included, we will screw it up the deal with Marriott,” he said. “They aren’t being clear about the community benefits. They say they have to oblige us for the dormitory, not the hotel. And after the letter, Northeastern acted like everything was alright again. They had a meeting with some community members, but didn’t call us and invited only people that supported their cause.”

Gittens was unable to recall the name of the group he said he had the meeting with.