Students Caught Trying to Get Liquor

We warned a couple days ago here on the blog about rumors of efforts to catch students drinking underage. Turns out, it's true, and Northeastern University students have been caught. In a Boston Globe story, it was reported that, "Dozens of underage drinkers didn't get the good time they were looking for after a trip to liquor stores over the weekend in Boston," and that the students were reported to their parents and institutions. The report further states that an estimated 400 students were stopped from obtaining alcohol and that "the students attended a number of local institutions, including Newbury College, Lesley University, Boston University, Boston College, Suffolk University, Northeastern University, and Emerson College." The students from Northeastern University who were reported will likely end up before the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution, where they could face disciplinary action.

Fall General Council Starts Today

We are less than 14 hours away from the first Resident Student Association General Council meeting. I heard a lot of interest at Welcome Week events in Housing Services area items and improving the residence halls, and some people even expressed interest during the summer orientations! I hope to see you there.

Win $100

This is not spam, we promise!

The Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution, otherwise known as OSCCR, is holding a contest where you can win $100 by filling out a short survey. They'll be surveying during the Activities Fair on September 11th and you can also enter the contest at the OSCCR website starting Thursday and continuing for a week.

When the Cashier Asks for ID, Say No!

When you're doing shopping for your apartment or residence hall room, buying lunch, getting new clothes, or picking up some snacks at the supermarket, if the cashier asks you for ID to use your credit or debit card, politely tell them "No!" By showing your ID, you increase your risk of costly identity theft, which can take years and cost thousands of dollars to clean up. Sadly, the problem stems from corrupt employees who will copy down information off your ID or memorize it and write it down later for misuse.

Under policies from the major credit card companies (Visa and MasterCard, and any establishment that takes Visa and/or MasterCard plus American Express), identification cannot be required for a sale provided the cardholder has signed the back of their credit or debit card. If you haven't signed your card, be sure to do so because not signing it can also increase your risk of identity theft, makes your card void in some cases, and could even make you liable for fraud that is typically covered by your bank if you followed their directions and signed the card.

If you hear of merchants in the Northeastern University area that are requiring identification for credit/debit cards, or breaking the rules by having minimum purchases or surcharges to use a credit card (which is even worse because it is against the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts), let us know or report the fraud by calling 1-800-VISA-911 for Visa cards or by submitting an online report for MasterCard cards.

Our Skits Made National Public Radio

This summer at orientation, the Resident Student Association was involved in the "Husky Hello" skits that were shown to all incoming freshmen. Members of the Association took part in the skits, one of which featured what can happen to people who drink a little too much. The skit was mentioned in a story by Monica Brady-Myerov on National Public Radio that aired this morning focusing on how Northeastern University has been changing its approach to educating students about drinking and disciplining students who break the rule. The story and features clips of audio from the skits (including the voice of an RSA member in the skit) as well as audio clips from Valerie Randall-Lee of the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution, Amaura Kemmerer of the Office of Prevention & Education, and Captain Albert Sweeny of the Northeastern University Police Department. The story also mentions how seven area College and University Presidents signed onto the Amethyst Initiative to start a dialogue on the drinking age and a clip from a parent who was happy that they explained the rules well. You can hear the story here through Real Player.

Move-In Weekend 2008

Move-In Weekend 2008 has come and gone, and all-in-all it seems to have gone smoothly. Here's a few points about the weekend:

• We were told by one administrator that this was "the best they've seen in years" with regards to the smoothness of move-in.
• We noticed great work from the Facilities Division helping with move-in and responding to work orders quickly. New students and parents were surprised at their great work, and on behalf of the residents I passed a thank you e-mail onto the head of the department.
• If you just moved in and are having issues with anything, you can reach Facilities at (617) 373-2754, or put a work order in at www.workreq.neu.edu.
• Students are excited about Laundry Bucks! It's a great program and I thank the hard working folks in Student Government who helped bring this to campus. If you haven't heard, Laundry Bucks gives you 15 free loads of laundry a semester, a $45.00 value.

A couple other things:

• We've heard rumors of Northeastern University police on the prowl trying to catch people handing off alcohol or drinking underage -- so be smart and don't break the law otherwise you may wind up before OSCCR or the Roxbury District Court!
• All the Welcome Week events can be found at the Welcome Week website.
• If you're interested in joining or learning about RSA, our first meeting is in 335 Shillman Hall at 7:30 PM on Wednesday

September 2008 on RSA Cinema

Watch the video below to learn about movies being featured on RSA Cinema this month:

The Past, Present, and Future of RSA Cinema

This summer the Housing Services Committee worked to develop a report evaluating RSA Cinema's past, current state, and looking forward at what needed to be done. We also set the stage for the creation of an RSA Cinema Manual and developed plans for advertising and promoting the channel. The full report is over fifty pages, and can be downloaded here as a PDF. Feel free to comment on the report, and look for the more formal RSA Cinema Manual next week.

Where Have All The Blog Posts Gone?

We've been pretty busy the last couple weeks in the Resident Student Association. While it is intersession, we were occupied with move to-from, advocating for the residents, and training the Resident Assistants. So the blog didn't get updated for almost two weeks. This update isn't much, but check back later today for a big piece of news!

New Colors

We've mixed up the colors on the Housing Blog for readability. Let us know what you think!

The Lowdown on Elevators with Expired Certificates

The Resident Student Association recently received no fewer than five notifications from students about elevators having expired inspection certificates in the Residence Halls. Upon hearing about the problem, we immediately got in touch with Facilities to let them know and to find out why this was the case. What we found out from Facilities is the following:

The University is in compliance with the requirements of both Massachusetts Elevator Regulations (524 CMR) and Mass General Law (MGL c. 143, sec. 64) pertinent to annual elevator testing and certification. Our service provider has submitted all the applications and required fees to initiate an annual inspection by the Commonwealth. The University has a formal testing schedule, produced by the Department of Public Safety, for both July and August. However, the Commonwealth hasn't enough adequate/competent inspectors for all elevators within the state. As such, the inspection supervisor at the Department of Public Safety, personally, began testing the elevators at Northeastern on Tuesday 12 August, accompanied by a few inspectors-in-training. They will continue this regimen until all elevators are tested.

We were further assured that there is no safety concern with any elevators on campus. By law, the University must leave up the expired certificates until new ones replace them, which is why for the time being you may see expired inspection certificates in elevators on-campus. If you ever notice an elevator issue in the residence halls, report the problem by calling the Facilities Customer Service center at (617) 373-2754.

laundry@neu.edu

laundry@neu.edu

Remember that e-mail address, and spread it throughout the residence halls when your fellow students (or you) have problems related to laundry on campus. Whether it's a dryer not drying, a washer not taking quarters, a card reader not working, or a laundry room that doesn't seem to be cleaned enough, the Resident Student Association can help. Plus, if you have an idea related to laundry, you can e-mail it to laundry@neu.edu and the Housing Services Committee will look into the idea.

There Is No Freshman Housing Shortage

In the Resident Student Association we frequently hear rumors about potential problems on-campus. The latest big rumor was a shortage of 300 beds of freshman housing, caused by more students deciding to attend Northeastern and live on-campus than expected. However, after investigation we found this rumor is totally false and without merit. So don't worry freshmen -- you'll have a bed on-campus come September. And RA's need not worry about their single rooms being converted into doubles to house freshmen either.

GrandMarc Issue Sent Back To Committee

After a long debate, the General Council decided that it was not yet time to take a stance on the topic of Northeastern placing students in the proposed GrandMarc at St. Boltoph Street, and voted down the Sense of the Council that had been brought forth. However, the General Council formally referred the matter to the Housing Services Committee, so we'll be dealing with it later in the year.

Northeastern Ranks #568

In a ranking of United States Colleges and Universities, Northeastern came in at #568 today. The ranking, done by Forbes, is an alternative to the U.S. News and World Report where Northeastern was ranked #96. Forbes claims that "for too many years, information about the quality of American higher education has been monopolized by one publication" and offers their ranking as an alternative.

Forbes' rankings feature a methodology featuring the perspective of being in a student's shoes. Part of the ranking is based on student evaluations of courses and instructors, part of the ranking is based on alumni being listed in the "Who's Who in America" and the rest of the ranking is based on student graduation rates, debt, and the number of students and faculty who have won national awards. For more about the rankings, you can go here.

Freshmen: Get Involved

Today's incoming Freshmen are able to access a wealth of information about the campus they will arrive at in September due to the wide availability of the internet. Blogs written by students about campus issues, such as this one are a great way for students to find out about issues on-campus and learn. Thus, it did not surprise me one bit to meet an incoming freshmen last night at orientation who was a reader of the Housing Services Blog.

That said, I want to encourage all incoming freshmen readers to follow the advice given by Northeastern's Associate Dean and Director of Residential Life, Robert Jose in a Boston Herald Article by Rochelle Stewart: Make the most out of your four years of college and get involved. At Northeastern, you may very well have the chance to make the most out of five or six years of college, so do it. Join student groups, take on leadership, and be involved. The Resident Student Association and the Housing Services Committee is a great way to get involved and have an impact on campus, and we will welcome anyone who is interested.

Our GrandMarc Comments

If you read the housing blog during the last couple months, you'll know that the Resident Student Association was very active in the public comment process for the proposed GrandMarc at St. Boltoph Street. We culminated our work on a public comment with a letter of comment and accompanying legislation. You can read the entire document, known as Council Resolution S2-08-1, here in PDF form. Our work related to the GrandMarc isn't done. We're currently working to address the topic of Northeastern University possibly leasing a block of space in the building for students to live in leased housing. If you have comments on this topic, feel free to post them here on the blog.

Sustainable Food Production at Universities Nationwide

Eaters must understand that how we eat determines how the world is used." – Wendell Berry

Change is happening all over our campus. Student activists are growing in population world-wide, nation-wide and throughout Northeastern's campus. The Cafeteria can be an integral part of an effort to make changes in health, agriculture, resource usage and the entire food system. When researching this topic I found many interesting articles and websites, sparking my interest in bringing this important movement to Northeastern. (I will include more information about the articles below.) Cornell University and their Department of Agriculture sponsor a Farm to School Extension program, connecting locally and sustain-ably grown food with schools from elementary to university. Occidental College recently connected the Tierra Miguel Foundation's organic farm to the Los Angeles Public schools in an effort for children to learn in a hands-on (and mouth-on!) way about agriculture and the environment. The University of Connecticut pledged last year to buy as much food locally "as possible" and has started producing honey on the property to fufill the 1,000 pounds of honey that students go through per year. The University of Vermont (UVM) currently partners with Black River Produce, supplying all of their fruit and vegetables, Champlain Orchards, supplying apples and cider, and the Vermont Fresh Network, connecting UVM to more farms in the area. Our landscaping on our city campus is beautiful. Imagine planting apple trees, squash or pumpkins in just garden plot on campus and eating that food in the Caf. Suddenly the beauty of our campus means something and is helping the environment. Chartwells, our catering and dining services provider, has just unveiled it's plan to "Go Green". How can we support them? Give them your feedback and show your appreciation of their efforts. Post your ideas here and the Housing Services Committee will bring them back to Chartwells in an effort to work together to make Northeastern greener!

The following articles were informative about this subject. I would suggest reading them for more information:

• Fresh from the Farm and Into the Classroom provides an overview and a link to a more detailed report about this program from the department of Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College's partnership between organic farms and Los Angeles public elementary schools.
• This article gives more information about Cornell University's successful Farm to School Program.
• This is a handbook for schools for buying and serving locally grown food in school meals provided by the USDA.
• Slow Food Nation: Come to the Table is a movement for a week of awareness of locally grown food. University Students are holding their own month of awareness and activism to get more locally grown food on the tables at their dining halls. Find out more about the Real Food Challenge at this website.
• This is a link to the Uconn newspaper article about the introduction of beehives and production of honey to their campus in an effort to become more sustainable.
• Check this site out for more information about Northeastern University Dining Halls. Discover their plan to "Go Green" by downloading the PowerPoint presentation on the home page.

The Housing Crunch On-Campus

It's a well-known fact that each year at Northeastern University more students apply for housing than there are beds. The same is the case elsewhere, and this year the crunch is even worse due to economic conditions. High fuel costs have led students who once planned to commute to school to want to live on-campus, and the fixed cost of residence hall living is becoming more appealing as utility prices rise. Additionally, dining halls have become a more reasonable option for students to eat at because of the rising costs of food.

This year's trend is notable and has been covered by a lot of media. The Boston Globe today featured an article by Peter Schworm about the cruch in Massachusetts. In Mississippi, LaRaye Brown of the Clarion-Ledger writes about the situation at the University of Southern Mississippi. Also, today the Florida Sun-Sentinel writes about the squeeze for space at Florida Atlantic University. Finally, Brittany Anas of the Boulder Daily Camera wrote Saturday about how the University of Colorado is booking hotel rooms to house students temporarily due to the crunch.

Lack of Posts & Writing for the Blog

Blog updates have been slow lately.

However, there is good reason. I, and the rest of the Housing Services Committee have been busy working on initiatives like the Fraternity and Sorority Life Leadership Living Learning Community, RSA Cinema, and making sure student voices are heard with regards to the GrandMarc. Blog updates should be more regular soon, and if you're interested in helping by writing on the blog send me an e-mail!