The World's Tallest Residence Hall

When we open up West Campus I & J, the 22-story tower will be Northeastern's tallest residence hall. But in the world, the tallest residence hall in existence is located in Normal, Illinois at Illinois State University. Named after a Professor of Geography who headed the Geography department in the 1950s, the Watterson Towers are 28-stories and house over 2,200 students. For comparison, West Campus I & J will house 1,200 students.

The Watterson Towers

Also of note, the Watterson Towers are the tallest buildings between Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri.

Heightened Security Urged for Massachusetts Colleges

A report presented to the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education yesterday calls for colleges in the state to heighten the security. The report points to many colleges that, unlike Northeastern, lack security cameras or a gun-carrying police force, and 1/3rd of colleges that lack agreements with local law enforcement on emergency response. A big focus of the report is a lack of training for recognizing students who may be "at risk," and looking at student writings for possible signs of violence. You can read more in this Boston Globe article.

At Northeastern, we are lucky to have one of three campus police agencies in the state that carries an accreditation from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. To get the accreditation, NUPD had to meet over 340 criteria, have written policy directives and manuals, and have an on-site evaluation take place.

However, Northeastern's training of staff to recognize at-risk students is something that we're less certain about. The Housing Services committee will be looking into what goes on in this area in the near future. If you ever have any ideas, questions, or concerns realted to resident safety or NUPD, feel free to post comments or e-mail us.

West Campus, Building D

A common question that pops up at Northeastern is why they skipped over the letter "D" with the West Campus buildings. It turns out, "D" was never skipped. If one takes a look at the Northeastern University Institutional Master Plan that was filed before the construction of the West Campus buildings began in the late 1990s, there is indeed a Building D on the map. The reason it seems like we "skipped" over the letter "D" is because the building actually got a name. George D. Behrakis, an alumnus of Northeastern, along with his wife gave a naming gift to the University of $8 million. As a result, instead of having a "Building D" or "West Village D," we have the George D. Behrakis Health Sciences Center (which opened in 2003.)

On a related note, Shillman Hall, which opened in 1995, was once known as just "West Classroom Building" until Robert Shillman and his wife made a $3 million naming gift.

NY State Considers Smoking Ban in Residence Halls

The State of New York may bann smoking in all college and university residence halls and dormitories, according to a news story. The ban would come through an amendment to New York's Clean Indoor Air Act. The amendment has passed the state legislature and awaits the signature of Governor Dave Patterson. (Note: the link says he is Lt. Governor, but the page is out of date... Patterson took over as Governor earlier this year following the resignation of Elliot Spitzer who resigned in shame following a prostitution scandal.) While all State University of New York campuses banned smoking in their residence halls nearly a year ago after their Board of Trustees approved a policy, the amendment to the Clean Indoor Air Act, which has passed the state legislature, will affect all institutions, public and private.

The article cites two students who support the change:

Adrianne Harding, 21, a senior at Pace University's Pleasantville campus, said yesterday that she supports the ban.

"I would agree with it. I'm asthmatic, so when other people smoke, it affects me," said Harding, who is studying for a degree in nursing. "Even if they are across the hall, the smoke seeps through the door and comes into my room. I don't understand how people can smoke cigarettes in the dorms but can't light candles. They should definitely ban it. I don't think it's fair."

Jose Caceres, 23, who graduated this summer with a bachelor's degree in computer science and plans to pursue a master's in business, agreed.

"I think it's a good idea. Secondhand smoking is one of the largest killers," he said. "I used to have a roommate who smoked a lot, and it's absolutely a problem. It's very unhealthy, and I prefer if no one smoked around me."

The bill would put the legal burden on the institutions, with institutions having a residence hall in violation being fined up to $2,000. Most likely, if the bill passes, institutions that currently allow smoking in residence halls will ban it and students who violate the rules will have fines passed onto them.

The biggest reason for the amendment other than secondhand smoke is fire safety:

Additionally, the bill aims at reducing the number of dorm fires, Paulin said.

In the past 10 years, two college residential hall fires in the state have resulted in fatalities, which Paulin said was "two too many."

While in Massachusetts there is no law about smoking in residence halls, nor is one working through the legislature, Northeastern prohibits smoking in all residence halls. However, 15 years ago this wasn't the case. At one point, there was only one residence hall that was smoke free. The Resident Student Association in the 1990s worked to expand the number of smoke free residence halls on campus, passing legislation which was signed into action. Additionally, Northeastern President John A. Curry approved a policy prohibiting smoking in academic and administrative space on campus. Eventually, in the early 2000s, smoking was prohibited in all residence halls. While on occasion there are students who ask for the policy to be changed, the majority of students support the prohibitions on smoking in the residence halls because of the issues realted to secondhand smoke and the increased fire risk. Also, rooms or buildings with smokers cost more money to maintain as the walls must be painted more often and furniture replaced more frequently due to the negative impact of smoke. Given these reasons, RSA still supports current policies. Of course, in the event that student views changed and a majority of students wanted smoking to be allowed in the residence halls, we in the Resident Student Association would advocate for a policy change.

Intersession Has Arrived

Intersession has arrived at Northeastern University for undergraduate students. The Summer I term has come to a close with the end of final exams today, and Summer II does not start up until Monday, June 30th. While many students are taking quick vacations, heading home, or relaxing, we in the Resident Student Association remain hard at work on behalf of all the students on-campus. Housing Services Committee is holding meetings this week and we've been busy with orientation which kicked off this week. That said, we're interested to hear about your intersession plans -- feel free to post them as comments to this blog post.

68˚F

68˚F is a special temperature: the lowest you should be able to set the temperature control in a centrally air conditioned building on campus. This value is known as the "minimum setpoint" of the thermostats, and if the thermostat is working properly, you can't set the temperature below 68˚F. This is, in part, due to energy reasons related to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment that President Joseph E. Aoun signed.

If your thermostat goes below 68˚F you have more freedom in temperature control than you should have. If your thermostat does not go down to 68˚F (for example: it only goes down to 70˚F) then call Facilities at 617-373-2754, enter a Work Order online, or send us an e-mail and include your room number, building, and phone number and we'll get the problem fixed for you.

GrandMarc Not Recommended At UC Riverside

Last week Assistant Vice President Gagnon and I attended a public meeting about the re-proposed GrandMarc on St. Boltoph Street. Also in attendance from Northeastern was Ryan Fox, who will be SGA Vice President for Student Services starting tomorrow; Robert Ranley who will be SGA President starting tomorrow; and Jeff Doggett, who is Northeastern's Director of Government Relations & Community Affairs. Cut down to 24 stories, and with a capacity of about 800, there are still many community concerns over the proposal. (Unfortunately, photos and renderings of the new design are not yet available in electronic format for us -- but you can see the old ones at this website.)

The GrandMarc proposed for St. Boltoph's Street is not an entirely new concept. There are a couple other GrandMarc's in the country. One of them is located near the University of California - Riverside. The building, called GrandMarc at University Village, is not recommended by current and previous students who lived in the building. In fact, 78% of students who posted reviews of the building at ApartmentRatings.com said "No" when asked if they would recommend the building to others. While this alone is an indication of the problems related to the GrandMarc and its management companies, the specific issues mentioned in some of the reviews are even worse.

One student, who actually recommended the building, wrote about some of the security problems with the building:

The gate is usually broken which means that ANYONE can come in and do anything. There are frequent break-ins for the people who live on the 1st floor.

Clearly, the safety of students is a priority for us in the Resident Student Association. Our campus ranked #2 in safety in the nation in Reader's Digest. While the proponents of the GrandMarc at St. Boltoph's Street claim they will provide a secure environment where students will be safe, their performance record at UC Riverside is concerning. Another reviewer wrote about the theft issues, saying:

Terrible place to live. No security, lots of things get stolen.

Yet another reviewer wrote about security issues with their door lock, and the lack of response to correct it:

The locks on the doors to your individual rooms serve no purpose since me and my roomate found out that all you need is a plastic card to pick the lock and open the door. On top of that, somehow the lock on our front door broke, and all u had to do was turn the handle and it openend right up. It took maintenance a week to finally come by and fix it.

The GrandMarc at UC Riverside

More concerning is the number of students who wrote about issues with the building's management. I've heard bad stories about student experiences with Housing and Residential Life at Northeastern, but some of the reviews about the GrandMarc at UC Riverside are horror stories compared to the problems students have had at Northeastern. One student wrote about how management lied to them about the amenities of the building:

I had nothing but problems from the moment I moved in. First of all, I was told that internet access and parking for myself and my guests were included in the rent. A few months later, I was told that to get a parking space close to my apartment I would have to pay $15. Also, my guests had to park all the way across the street or they would get their car towed. Tow trucks are part of the parking lot scenery. The internet that was promised cost me 15 additional dollars a month. And the place is filthy! They clean it maybe twice a year when offering tours for prospective residents. And don't count on management to help you with any problems or issues you have. Please don't live here!

Another student wrote about how management was difficult to find or help residents:

The office assistants at GrandMarc seemed to be only trained in getting people to sign contrats to live here and little else. Customer service is great for prospective customers but once you live here there is no help to be found. Management are somehow always busy or away on extended lunches/breaks.

As a representative of the students who live on-campus at Northeastern, I would hate to see any student leave Northeastern University housing for someplace like the GrandMarc. Additionally, many community members oppose the building and attended last week's meeting to say so. The track record of the company behind this is not good. If they can't manage a set of four-story buildings for student housing well, why should the community and students trust them to manage a 24-story building? Even worse was the refusal of the GrandMarc's proponents to provide straight answers to questions from community members and from the Resident Student Association. It seems that the best solution for both students and the local community will be for the Boston Redevelopment Authority to join with the community and reject this building.

RSA Cinema Improvements

The Housing Services Committee would like to solicit your ideas on how RSA Cinema can be improved in the upcoming year. Please post comments about problems you have had with RSA Cinema, what you don't like, and what you want to see us offer.

Some of the feedback we already received has been about the odd starting times. For example, movies used to start at times like 4:08 PM or 9:43 PM. Now, all titles start on a quarter hour (:00, :15, :30, or :45). Also, in response to student complaints about long intermissions with just a screen saying "waiting to play," we have added student-created content in the time between feature movies, which is never more than 15 minutes.