THE ISSUE: 'Boston Globe' misrepresents BC students again
WHAT WE THINK: Time to start looking at the real situation
Yesterday, in an editorial entitled "Off-campus harmony," the Boston Globe continued its recent campaign of shining an unfair and inaccurate spotlight on Boston College, its students, and the relationship between students living off campus and residents of the Allston-Brighton community.
The Globe's editorial suggests that universities must work to create an environment in which students and local residents can coexist through mutual respect. One way the editorial recommends going about this is through volunteer work, citing Clark's Community Engagement and Volunteering Center, of Clark University in Worcester, Mass., as a prime example - one that is "a good model for other campuses."
This recommendation is entirely true; however, it is very unfortunate that the Globe failed to mention BC's extraordinary commitment to service, especially since the Globe has deemed it necessary to portray BC students as "drunken louts"- a phrase used in a June 7 article titled "BC expansion called too close for comfort."
Yet every year, through the Appalachia Volunteers, the Pedro Arrupe service and immersion trips, the PULSE program, 4Boston, Urban Immersion, and several other campus groups, BC students share their time and talent with individuals from Brighton to Ecuador and countless places in between.
The PULSE program, for example, allows students to combine classroom learning with field placements at local service organizations.
4Boston even ran into a slight problem last year when it received 407 applications for 277 volunteer placements.
The Globe and editor Martin Baron must realize that BC and its students are already working toward strengthening this inherently tense relationship with the neighboring communities.
Several stories this summer, along with yesterday's editorial, portray BC's students in a less-than-desirable light. If the Globe truly wishes to report the relationship between BC students and their neighbors in an accurate manner, it must dig deeper and recognize that the University is and has been working toward a more harmonious community for some time now.
