Dive Brief:
- More than 20 universities in Boston will turn over the addresses of students living off-campus to Mayor Martin Walsh, who says the move is necessary to combat safety issues from overcrowded housing. Boston College, however, has raised privacy concerns.
- Walsh met with presidents and representatives of the schools, including Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern University, and Suffolk University, and said that not one expressed a problem with his request for the information.
- The request follows a Boston Globe investigation that uncovered widespread overcrowding in Boston’s off-campus housing, including a Boston College neighborhood where 80% of the students reported more than four undergrads living in their apartments, violating city zoning laws.
Dive Insight:
Other problems uncovered by the Globe investigation included rats, bedbugs, useless smoke detectors, and bedrooms in firetrap attics and basements. After a fire last year killed a Boston University student, activists demanded that colleges disclose their off-campus student addresses to the city, but only BU complied. Boston College says its lawyers are studying whether providing the addresses to the city would violate federal privacy rules.
