NEWS Hospitals reevaluate the value of training for violent situations in wake of Brigham and Women’s shooting. pg. 2
CATALYST Aging pipes mean that a startling amount of the state’s natural gas is seeping into the atmosphere. pg. 5
4º / 29º LIGHT SNOW
SPORTS Back on Track: Men’s basketball attempts to take charge in the Patriot League standings against Army. pg. 11
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2015 THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR XLIV. VOLUME LXXXVIII. ISSUE II.
PHOTO BY JACQUI BUSICK/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore spoke with students on Jan. 21 about the plans of Boston officials to inspect off-campus student housing for violations.
City to begin inspection of off-campus housing BY SAMANTHA GROSS DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
After receiving addresses for local college students living off-campus, the City of Boston will send inspection officers to examine off-campus residences in the upcoming weeks for code violations, such as overcrowding. A 2014 ordinance for the City’s University Accountability Report required schools to include residential addresses of students living off campus in Boston, said Gabrielle Farrell, a spokeswoman for Boston Mayor Martin Walsh’s office. The Boston City Council voted on Aug. 20, 2014 to require colleges and universities to submit student addresses, The Daily Free Press reported Sept. 4, 2014. Approximately 580 addresses have been identified as places that will be inspected for potential overcrowding, The Boston Globe reported on Jan. 2. “The addresses shared by the colleges and universities will assist the Inspectional Services Department in determining what properties may be in violation of the Boston zoning code stipulation that no more than four undergraduate students occupy a single unit of housing,” Farrell said in an email. “Any property found to be in violation will be inspected, and appropriate actions will be taken.” No more than four full-time undergraduate students can live together in a “dwelling
unit,” according a 2008 amendment to the Boston Zoning code. The addresses BU shared with the city kept students’ names and personal information confidential, said BU spokesman Colin Riley. Sharing such confidential information would violate the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. “No names were included with addresses, in some cases the addresses being an apartment building with multiple units,” Riley said. “It doesn’t mean any are out of compliance there. It just means that the address has more than four undergraduates living at it.” Sara Miranda, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, lives in an off-campus apartment in Allston, and said the information revealed in the inspections will hopefully keep students safe. “I don’t know the real reasons why they have to submit it, but I would guess that it’s because all of the off-campus fires that have happened and all of the BU students who have been involved in those,” she said. “I don’t mind personally if my name was released, even though I don’t think they are releasing names.” In 2013, Binland Lee, a senior in CAS, died in a fire at her residence at 87 Linden St., the FreeP reported April 28, 2013. The property landlord and real estate agency received a lawsuit for allegedly renting an apartment that did not have permission from the City to add more bedrooms, violating the number of undergrad-
uates allowed in one unit, the FreeP reported on Sept. 4, 2014. A 2014 Boston Globe Spotlight Team series, titled “Shadow Campus,” highlighted the safety hazards and illegal housing conditions that lead to Lee’s death. “Even just last semester, there was a huge fire in Allston, and I remember my friend’s apartment was right next door, and so she was evacuated and was really nervous that her building was going to catch on fire too,” Miranda said. “It’s definitely something to think about.” While the City will not have access to students’ names, Tara DeRosa, a junior in the School of Management, said she still thinks the inspections disrupt their privacy and the purpose of the off-campus experience. “I personally don’t really see that being necessary. For me, it’s definitely a breach of privacy. It’s a little odd, since we’re not on campus,” DeRosa said. “I moved off campus just to have more of a real-life situation … part of that is being responsible for yourself and making sure your own apartment is safe and everything. I don’t think there should be random inspections.” Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore met with students Jan. 21 to give them information about the city’s enforcement efforts. Katherine Hasenauer Cornetta, assistant to the Dean of Students, said although the office does not have control of students’ housing
affairs off campus, it will continue to offer assistance and information to students about the upcoming inspections. “A lot of these types of inspections tend to come around move-in weekends. We usually aren’t notified for every single [code violation], but we’ll find out if a house has been inspected and deemed completely uninhabitable,” she said. In serious situations when students do not have a place to go while their landlords make repairs or a residence has been deemed uninhabitable, Cornetta said the office will make sure students have a place to stay. “In dire situations, if we have space on campus, we’ll bring them on temporarily. That’s becoming increasingly rare,” she said. “We don’t get to know about every single time a house has been deemed uninhabitable. If that happens to students, they need to contact us, so we can know what’s going on, and we can put a bunch of things into motion to help them out and navigate the process.” Miranda said beyond the City’s inspections, there are other issues that need to be addressed with off-campus housing. “It’s a good thing for the city to do, but I think it’s probably not going to be realistic in what they can really do, especially because overcrowding is a huge issue,” she said. “There’s not a ton of affordable housing right near the schools, and everyone wants to be as close to campus as they can.”
Massachusetts lacking in some areas for LGBT equality, laws BY MEILING BEDARD DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
In 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage, but despite its marriage equality, it is still lacking in some of its non-discrimination laws, according to the 2014 State Equality Index released Friday by the Human Rights Campaign and the Equality Federation. The report separated states into four categories in terms of progressive legislation. Massa-
chusetts falls in the “Solidifying Equality” group, meaning that the state has marriage equality and some non-discrimination laws, but lacks full protections against discrimination. The most progressive category, “Working Toward Innovative Equality,” was reserved for states with “robust LGBT non-discrimination laws.” “The purpose of [the study] was to look at the type of laws that affect LGBT equality across the country,” said Alison Gill, Human Rights Campaign senior legislative counsel and author of the State Equality Index.
According to its website, the HRC is the largest civil rights organization promoting equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. The Index evaluates statewide laws and policies that affect these communities and is the first of what the Human Rights Campaign plans to be an annual report. Each state’s scorecard shows whether it has laws regarding LGBT equality in six areas: relationship recognition, parenting laws, non-discrimination laws, hate crimes laws, youth-related laws and health and safety laws.
Gill said shortcomings in the state’s parenting, non-discrimination and youth protection laws have prevented Massachusetts from being placed in the Index’s most progressive category. Gill hopes that lawmakers are able to see where gaps in their own state equality laws lie. “Massachusetts has always been a leader in marriage equality,” Gill said. “The key piece I’m trying to raise is that despite marriage equality, there are still gaps.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 4