Welcome to the Residence Life Committee!
The Residence Life Committee is responsible for advocating for stronger residential health, safety, and community. This includes all aspects of a student’s residential experience, including building stronger community, safety awareness and promotion, equitable living conditions, as well as access to good study and recreational spaces.
Committee Chair: Jared Kleiman
Meetings: Mondays @7pm in the GSU Backcourt
For more information on the Residence Life Committee, please contact residencelife@bustudentunion.com
Gender Neutral Housing
This initiative was picked up by Student Union following the implementation of Coed Housing Policies by a number of other universities, including Wesleyan, Swarthmore, and NYU. These policies emphasize modern attitudes regarding gender relations and the changing dynamic of male-female relations. These policies also reflect greater consideration for gay and transgender students who may want to avoid same-sex roommates that might not accept their lifestyle. The best way to implement this policy at BU would be in the StuVi or StuVi2 apartments, where students have access to private rooms within a more open and diverse living arrangement. This could then possibly be expanded to other dormitories with suite style living.
For more information regarding Gender Neutral Housing, check out:
Colleges & Universities that Offer Gender-Neutral Rooming
THE STATE OF COEDUCATIONAL ROOMING AT HARVARD AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ROOMING CHOICE
Documenting the Discourse: Press Coverage of Gender-Neutral Policy from around the Nation
Centralized and Increased Advertising of Student Events and Activities
Recently, the Student Activities Office has taken a major step forward in instituting YouDo@BU, a new social networking site through which student groups are managed and advertised. While this will undoubtedly be useful, physical advertising should not be neglected as an important part of Student Event and Activity advertising within the university. The Student Union executive board wishes to encourage and pursue the following objectives:
dedication of some of the monitors within the GSU to display either a scrolling calendar of upcoming student events for the day or a highlight slideshow of advertisement for student groups and events
Expansion of flier advertising boards inside the GSU, schools, colleges, and dorms in areas central to student activity where it would be tasteful to establish a board. A good example would be SMG’s successful implementation of bathroom stall flier boards.
Sexual Health Awareness
Sexual health awareness and safe sex practices continue to be a high priority for the Student Union. Though open access to condoms within dormitories may be harder to implement than previously thought, Union would still like to see wider availability of condoms on campus. Potential locations include the GSU and 19 Deerfield Street, as well as other relevant locations. We also hope to publicize this initiative through events at safety week and through other advocacy programming throughout the year.
Increased Access to Recycling on Campus
Recycling is available within dormitories, however without easy floor access to recycling bins, many residents feel discouraged from recycling. Thus, it is necessary to work with the RHAs to create engaging floor recycling programs that activate residents into participating.
Backdoor@BU
A great guide to university housing options compiled by the Residence Life Committee.