More Campaign Literature: This Time From Boston College

Last night I found yet another piece of campaign literature on my front porch. Not from a candidate for City Council, though. This one was a copy of the Boston College Neighbor newsletter -- a gift from BC's Office of Governmental and Community Affairs, part of their campaign to win approval for their institutional master plan. It's the first such newsletter I've ever received from BC. It should not be confused with the separate "Boston College Neighborhood Newsletter" issued by the Boston College Neighborhood Center.

Don't get me wrong: this flyer is a welcome piece of literature. One City Council candidate, Alex Selvig, complained in the 7/23 forum about lack of notification from BC about their expansion plans:

Meetings have been going on for Boston College's expansion for two years before I found out about it. I live across the street.

I live a quarter-mile from the corner of the former St. John's Seminary land, not across the street, so the fact that I just received this flyer is a sign of BC's good intentions to communicate better with the neighborhood. Kudos.

The newsletter leads off with a quick description of their institutional master plan, stating that they intend to file the Institutional Master Plan Notification Form with the BRA in "early September 2007."

One of the six pages was, well, an advertisement for BC football games. And the newsletter had a large refrigerator magnet insert, also advertising the football games. But this magnet was not the same one they are presumably distributing to alumni and students: ours had a sticker attached to the top-right giving the [BC] "Community Hotline" phone number: 617-552-2443.



Inside the newsletter, they let on: the number is the hotline "During Football Games." Up late because of a rowdy undergraduate party next door? Try the BC Police instead at 617-552-4440. To BC's further credit, they include an article on page 2 about Stephen Montgomery and the Community Assistance Program (CAP), along with instructions to call the police number above for "neighborhood disturbances." They are distributing this newsletter in advance of the August 31 student move-in date, so that neighbors know what to do from day one if noisy undergraduates start partying on their street.

Finally, for the first time BC announced the names of the newest recipients of the "Allston/Brighton Scholarships" -- up to ten full-tuition scholarships for Allston-Brighton residents who were admitted to BC, provided as part of the Community Benefits under Article 80 of the zoning code. Only seven A-B residents qualified this year as having "institutionally determined need of greater than $10,000," so the other three awards went to city-wide students.

This new transparency by BC is a fine change of heart; Vice President Thomas Keady, Jr., claimed in the January 16, 2007 meeting of the BC Task Force that the recipients' names could not be disclosed due to privacy concerns.

The 2007-8 recipients are: Su Yu, Boston Latin School, Allston; Bilal Ahmed, Boston Latin School, Brighton; Rachel Buckley, Ursuline Academy, Brighton; Nairobi Oller, Brighton High School, Brighton; Tara Prince, Boston Latin School, Brighton; Colby Riordan, Boston Latin School, Brighton; Jennifer Hartin, Boston Latin School, Brighton; Angela Caputo-Papastamos, English High School, Roslindale; Jean-Baptiste Errgy, English High School, Dorchester; and Janet Yu, John D. O'Bryant School, Boston.

No names were given, however, for the sophomores, juniors, and seniors at BC who are continuing to receive these scholarships (they are "renewable annually"), one of whom was mentioned at a previous BC Task Force meeting. Those names would be a fine addition to the next edition of the newsletter... or for their Boston College institutional master plan online website. (Hint, hint: also put an electronic version of this newsletter on the website!)

Accusations and an Admission at the BC Task Force Meeting

The June 19, 2007 meeting of the BRA's Boston College Task Force was a lively, noisy, and, at times, unruly sideshow. While I previously reported on the substantive material presented as part of the unannounced agenda -- and also on a past police log incident apparently related to the individual who caused a disturbance late in the meeting -- there was more going on in the meeting than has been reported to date.

After Mark Alford objected to the meeting being held on account of the failure to provide advance, public notice of the agenda, Patrick Galvin levied a general accusation that -- here, I'm guessing on a few of the details because it was hard to hear clearly over the air conditioners -- one or more members of the BC Task Force had accepted "gratuities" in the past from BC. No specifics were given as to the individuals or the gratuities, although I heard somebody, I believe, mention something like, "tickets for athletics events."

Now, normally I wouldn't post an unsubstantiated accusation like that on the blog, except that task force member John Bruno later responded with some specifics. First, Bruno admitted that he had, in the past, received some tickets to BC games (like hockey) which he had then handed out to youth players when they showed up to practice and/or games. These kids thus got to attend a college athletics game. He expressed the opinion that this was a pretty good thing, and it's hard to argue with him on that; BC even touts such giveaways as part of their community benefits. It is unclear if these youth ticket giveaways were the gratuities implied by Patrick Galvin's comments, or if Galvin meant something else, since I believe Galvin had let the room by the time that Bruno made these comments.

Bruno's second admission, however, was a whopper. He confirmed that his son currently attends Boston College on a full, tuition-free scholarship: "Yep, my son is there. I see $40,000 a year" in benefits from the scholarship. I assume he means $35,150/year for 2007-8, which is the tuition cost to attend BC as an undergraduate. Since Bruno is a resident of Allston-Brighton, his son's scholarship is presumably one of the ten "Allston/Brighton Scholarships" allocated annually by BC to A-B residents as part of community benefits agreed upon through past Article 80 master planning processes. (It was touted as such by Thomas Keady, Jr., BC's VP for Governmental and Community Affairs, at the January 16, 2007 meeting of the BC Task Force.)

I must say that I was personally surprised to hear a member of the BC Task Force acknowledge that he is the recipient of $35,000-$40,000 per year from the very institution whose master plan he is supposed to be studying, discussing, and eventually voting up or down to recommend to the BRA for approval or disapproval. I also find it rather odd that the A-B TAB's article fails to mention this admission by Bruno, although their reporter appears to have been present both at the beginning of the meeting (for Alford's and Galvin's comments) and the end of the meeting (for the ejection/scuffle with Costello). Strangely, they reported the unsubstantiated allegations of "gratuities" without reporting the response later in the meeting.

What do you think about all this? I welcome comments to this post -- as I do to all posts -- but the comments cannot be anonymous (or offensive), and I note that they are moderated.