October 20, 2007
Boston University Plans Self-Improvement Mission
Boston University is willing to spend big bucks--$1.8 billion, to be exact--to be an academic powerhouse. Linda Wertheimer at the Globe reported Thursday that BU wants to "add 150 professors, dramatically lower the school's student-faculty ratio, and pour money into salaries to allow BU to vie for the nation's top professors."
Not bad. You go, BU. President Robert Brown has visions of US News & World Report college rankings dancing in his head.
However, if BU wants to improve its reputation, it might want to think locally and then act nationally. BU students feel that they've been unfairly hassled by the other BPD. One student wrote in a letter to the Daily Free Press that the Brookline Police were "unnecessary" (link via Massachusetts Liberal). This line of thinking likely did not go over well in Brookline.
A group called Bring BU Back (BBUB?) wanted to stage a protest by putting college kids who weren't drunk (surely there are about 10 or so) on doorsteps to see how the Brookline Police will handle it. The BU Student Union (BUSU?) talked the BBUB out of it.
Image from Wikipedia.
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As a BU student, this is good news. But as you said, there are a lot of problems that are going without action.
Firstly, the Brookline police are completely out of line in the way they are treating students. Granted, drunken students that are causing a fuss have got to go, but even just walking from the C-line to Comm Ave. after dark, you are closely followed by one or more patrol cars. It's a terrible shame that we're being put under that sort of persecution.
If the Brookline residents are really having a problem with what "is" happening on Fridays and Saturdays, why didn't anyone approach the Student Union, or Dean Elmore? I suppose it's just easier to give your police something to do.
With that said, a more addressable problem is still happening on campus. I know this matter has come up before, but BU's grade deflation practices are indeed still going on, and are having an effect on all of our grades. The conversation has died out on this one, but it really hurts our chances at Grad school (not to mention is a terrible thing to try to explain to our parents!).
Can't help but think what would happen if prospective freshmen were told about the grade deflation upfront.
Although it's always a good joke to crack that most BU students could get those (easy) As at Harvard, although BU's grading has made it so we could never transfer in.
Well... I suppose it's good to know they are throwing money at professors, now... I was beginning to wonder where my $50K was going...
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www.bringbuback.com (it looks low rent, but it's the content that matters, eh?), or facebook us.
no one talked anyone out of anything, we just pushed the protests back a week to see how the discussions between the union and brookline residents pan out. if any brookline residents have stories to share that would help the students' cause, please share them on our message board.
and we haven't decided on an abbreviation yet, but i'll submit BBUB for consideration.