By Anne Baker
Update: This article was corrected to state that a follow-up OSCCR forum will be held Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. in the Raytheon Amphitheater. Contact [email protected] for details.
Room 318 in the Curry Student Center was slightly emptier than expected yesterday at noon. Rows of leather and metal chairs stood vacant without students to fill them. An open forum, intended to gather student feedback on the Code of Student Conduct, had failed to entice even one student, not even those pushing for Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR) reform.
The forum, sponsored by OSCCR, was announced by e-mail Jan. 10. But students failed to show up during the activities period time slot reserved for the meeting. OSCCR has faced severe criticism since the beginning of the school year from many at Northeastern, including the Northeastern Patriot, the Student Government Association (SGA) and the nearly 700 members of the online Facebook group demanding OSCCR reform, among them the group’s founder, Derek Miller.
None of them, however, attended the forum yesterday. OSCCR director Valerie Randall-Lee said she was unsuprised. “We didn’t know what to expect, but in recognizing that the Code of Student Conduct has become an issue for some students, we were hoping that more students would come out to discuss these issues in a productive way,” representatives from OSCCR said in an e-mail.
Some students said they did not receive proper notification, including Miller, who said he had not heard about the forum until yesterday morning when he saw an ad in The News.
“I would have e-mailed the world about it, but I just found out,” Miller said. In an interview with The News, Miller initially said he would have attended the forum, but that he had a class during the scheduled time. When a News reporter told Miller the forum was held during activities period, he changed his statement, saying he had a lunch date at Symphony Sushi. “I didn’t receive adequate notification to alter my schedule,” he said.
Miller is the founder of the Facebook group, Respect Our Rights, Northeastern: Reform OSCCR!, which at press time had 692 members. He is also the creator of an online petition aimed at reforming OSCCR. He said he intends to create an official student organization calling for OSCCR reform and has written the group’s constitution.
Miller, who said he has faced no formal OSCCR charges in the past, blamed the lack of student participation at the forum on the absence of wide-spread advertising, saying, “PR just isn’t getting done.” “When I don’t know about something, that’s a problem, and something’s going on,” he said.
To advertise the forum, OSCCR placed an announcement on the myNEU portal, purchased a quarter-page ad in The News, put a slide on the screen in Curry Student Center and posted announcements on the scrolling screens around campus.
The organization also sent an e-mail to both the SGA and the Resident Student Association.
Miller said Christopher Bourne, SGA vice president for student services and Miller’s roommate, along with other members of SGA, did not receive notification about the forum.
However, Bourne told a reporter he had received the e-mail and was aware of the forum, although he said he was unsure whether other SGA members had received it. The e-mail was sent to [email protected]. Bourne said he did not know who else received the e-mails sent to that address. Marines Piney, SGA vice president for student affairs, confirmed that all e-mails sent to that address are received by the SGA president, Joey Fiore, and all five SGA vice presidents. Fiore could not be reached for comment.
Piney said she received the e-mail but decided not to promote the forum because she did not consider it SGA’s role to do so.
“I personally didn’t really think it was SGA’s responsibility to advertise for them,” she said.
Miller said his absence from the forum should not be read as an indication that he has abandoned his fight for OSCCR reform. He said he plans to expand his cause beyond Facebook this semester.
“Populism isn’t how things get changed around here,” he said. “No more populist channels. We have to work through established channels.”
Miller said he will attend the next forum, to be held Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Raytheon Ampitheater.
-News Staff writer Derek Hawkins contributed to this report.
