BOSTON (WHDH) - A Boston city councilor is calling on Boston University and Northeastern University to keep all of their students home this fall to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, rather than operate under a hybrid model.
“Now is not the time, with troubling COVID case indicators, to increase the city population as much as ten percent,” said Councilor Kenzie Bok, who represents the Fenway area where both schools have a large student presence. “I’m calling for the universities to really switch to an all-virtual model instead of this hybrid model and not to encourage additional undergraduates to come back to Boston in the next few weeks.”
In a letter to the two universities, Bok said she’s concerned about the recent uptick in COVID cases, and she wants the out-of state-students to stay home.
“Boston’s the only city in Amerca that has this degree of a tidal population swing in a couple of weeks,” Bok said, singling out Boston University and Northeastern for their large student bodies. “In the city those are the two institutions that bring the largest number of out of state undergraduates to Boston.”
Bok said she is especially concerned about students who live off-campus and wants the universities to take responsibility for them.
“Those neighborhoods are full of elders, vulnerable people, people who are essential workers and to mix in a whole bunch of students from many hot spots around the county and expect that quarantining is going to hold and that we’re not going to see parties, I think is just unrealistic,” she said.
Both BU and Northeastern say they’re pursuing hybrid models with both on-campus and remote learning.
In a statement, Northeastern said “Northeastern has undertaken countless extraordinary measures to plan for a safe fall semester. We are moving cautiously and carefully ahead with the plans we announced in June.”
“We will continue to work with the Councilor and her constituents to prioritize their health and safety,” Boston University said in a statement. But Bok said she was still concerned.
“This feels like a tidal wave that’s off the coast and we can see it coming at us and the only good thing is that unlike a tidal wave we actually still can knock it down…but to do that we have to have our universities make those leadership decisions,” Bok said.
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