Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 58 comments on Student Center Coming to East Campus

  1. “Nicksa says the University will not borrow money or fundraise to cover the center’s construction cost.”

    Oh, so the money is simply going to appear out of nowhere? Or can we expect a much steeper tuition hike next year, for something that is completely unnecessary. Everything this center will provide is already in place, so more or less this is going to cost 50 million for convenience (if you want to call it that).

  2. Investing $50 million dollars to improve student living is great! However, if BU has such money, would it be useful to make direct investments into advancing undergraduate education at BU, say, by hiring more teaching faculty, supporting more research and development in undergraduate education? Currently, the administration offers to each department about $30,000 to improve undergraduate teaching, but even if we multiply this by the number of BU departments, the result will be far less than $50,000,000.

  3. Don’t know how I feel about this. Myles and Shelton are nice in a large part because of their dining halls. Its so nice to have one in your building, by taking those away, living there, when its raining, cold, snowing, etc. won’t be quite as good.

  4. What they really need is a small gym in this facility…FITREC is way too far away from the majority of the student body, especially during winter.

  5. Taking the dining halls out of Shelton and Towers won’t be so bad; 100 Bay State is just a quick jog over for residents of those dormitories. But slogging there from Myles, not to mention Danielsen, will be no picnic in the rain and snow. I would suggest that something remain in Myles, even if it isn’t full dining service. Perhaps a cafe like the one in Hojo?

  6. This project sounds great, but they need to keep the dining hall at Myles. The people at Danielsen (the only on campus dorm in the city) need a place to eat. It would be way too far of a walk for them to go to the center for every meal. However, if there is a secret ploy in this to close down Danielsen, I would say not to do it. There is still a significant number of upperclassmen who don’t want to live in the Stuvi’s or west campus in general.

  7. Why is Career Services being referred to as the CSC in this article?? I have always known the CSC as the Community Service Center… are names of offices being changed??

  8. How is this supposed to help the over-crowding in West Campus dining hall which is service StuVi 2, Rich, Sleeper, Claflin, 1019?

    “For years, students living on East Campus have been keenly aware of the distance to amenities on West Campus”
    They have the GSU!!!! The library! SMG, CAS, Photonics!

  9. BU have refused to give me money for my doctoral research. All I need is about $5,000 to finish my PhD. Now, come on. We are a university. I am one of the only doctoral students I know without funding. F-you BU.

  10. The location, the design, and the shift to a common eating space all sound like great ideas. Here are a couple thoughts/concerns:

    1. Will the construction be a disturbance to students living that area?

    2. Will there be a dining area for graduate students and faculty? That would be quite helpful.

  11. If there is not a mini-FitRec in the facility I don’t see how it will help all the students who “for years…have been keenly aware of the distance to amenities on West Campus — things like FitRec.”

  12. I feel like when I go back to BU for my 10 year reunion I won’t even recognize it anymore! haha. And I agree with what everyone has said about Myles. The poor kids in Danielsen and the East Campus brownstones (the ones across from Danielsen) need a place to eat too!

  13. Great — maybe they can temporarily house all of the services in the GSU here and elsewhere while they demolish that embarrassment of a student union and put something legit in its place. Seriously, small liberal arts colleges with a few thousand students have way nicer student unions than BU. When’s that rebuild coming?

  14. well, it’s a nice idea, but I pretty much agree with what everyone else says. it will be a block FARTHER from Danielsen than Myles, and will inconvenience everyone in Shelton, Myles and Towers. as a resident of Towers, I like the closeness and variety of the smaller dining halls, and the complete lack of lines.

    one of the draws of BU I think is its variety; every part of campus has its own distinct attitude, its own distinct feel. West feels college campusy; if you want that kind of feeling, you live in West. but I always liked East Campus- Bay State in particular- because of its small, homey, neighborhood sort of feel. it’s a shame that we’re robbing potential students of the right to choose to live in this unique atmosphere.

    oh! and the cost. 50 million? divide that by our 32,000 student-body- that is 1,563 dollars. or, in more tangible terms, 800 cups of coffee. (because I, like any good college student, calculate in base-Starbucks.)

  15. Please note that the growth in ERC employees that is cited in this article is NOT the growth in full-time employees. The figures include student employees who provide the majority of the ERC’s tutoring and also serve as office assistants. The number of full-time staff in the ERC is 6, which is up by 1FTE (added last year) since 2004.

  16. Well. That’s interesting. So is the hike in tuition. What ever happened to education? This is gaudy and irresponsible. I do not think this is a wise choice considering so many students are struggling to come here in the first place. It is entitlement and it is elitist.

  17. Well. That’s interesting. So is the hike in tuition. What ever happened to education? This is gaudy and irresponsible. I do not think this is a wise choice considering so many students are struggling to come here in the first place. It is entitlement and it is elitist.

  18. I’m all for this center, but like some other people have said, if it doesn’t have a mini-fitrec, I don’t see the point. People can get along fine with the dining halls the way they are now, but the single most important benefit of west campus is fitrec!! We have to go somewhere to burn off all the crap they serve around campus (although I recognize that they TRY to not give us crappy food, it’s just hard when you’re cooking in such mass quantities). And this is Boston, so seriously, it’s just not reasonable to jog outside. I know fitrec is only 5 years old and cost a lot to build, but they should have a floor with some basics (like an extended, newer version of what they have in the Warren Towers workout room)

    If they are going to build this dining hall and take down the others on bay state, it’ll be fine for kids in Towers, Shelton, and Myles (yes, myles too, it’s ONE block from Myles, really not bad, suck it up).. but they’ll have to open a dining hall in Danielsen… this place will be 3 blocks from danielsen… the poor kids there are far away from EVERYTHING, the least the can do is give them their own dining hall

  19. Great. More construction on Bay State to wake me up at 7 am. Bu really needs to consider t he needs of their current students. Sure, this is a great idea, but there has been constant construction on this end of bay state, and it’s always ad odd times – between 7 am and 3 am. That’s ridiculous. Current students shouldn’t sacrifice sleep for the benefit of future students.

    Also, way to ruin the charm and beauty of east campus. “Improvements” like this are the reason I can’t wait to graduation. BU is so out of tune with the needs of its students, it’s ridiculous.

  20. I will graduate before this is built and yet my tuition is increasing every term. Is my tuition going to pay for a facility that I will never get the chance to use?

  21. If the commenters on this board are typical of BU students, then BU is full of whiners and complainers. You all should have gone to UMass or SUNY.

    If you hate BU so much, transfer!

  22. While adding a building might sound like an improvement on employment, taking out the 3 dining halls in east campus will lead only to a loss of jobs. Working in the dining hall, think of all the jobs that will be lost.

    Positions in Towers D.H. alone:
    1 director, 1 assistant director, food service manager (ordering), Payroll lady, chefs (4 major ones i think), 5-10 dishwashing guys, 10-15 regular employees, 40 student workers

    make one big D.H. and you still have to cut some ppl out. How many directors can you have? Warren does have like 3, but those are assistant directors, so either the directors become assistant directors. and what, up the number of dishswashing guys to 20, but that still means other ppl get cut.

    Way to help the economy. I understand that BU will save alot of money in the long long run.

    Right, like the money BU will save from this will go back to the students. More scholarships, more funding? uhuh sure, tell yourself that.

  23. This is ridiculous. We don’t need a new dining hall if it means shutting down three. Each dining hall located in the East part of campus has its own unique personality and should remain standing. Thanks BU for even bothering to ask students about our opinions. Hmph..

  24. This is a terrible idea. I lived in east campus for two years and never felt inconvenienced by a 30 minute walk to fitrec or a 2 minute walk to my own dining hall- and there was certainly no problem walking 6 minutes to central campus. This is completely unnecessary and a waste of our money. PUT IT TOWARDS SCHOLARSHIPS. An academic institution does not need luxury student living. We need good education we can afford.

  25. I am strongly opposed to this idea just because it’s not fixing what it’s proposing to do. Without a mini fit-rec, the things that people in East Campus desire from West Campus are not being fixed. Also, eliminating 3 dining halls to make one big one is definitely not the best idea. It’s hard enough waiting forever in line to get food and now all of that will take longer. Plus, it is a far walk for people in Danielsen and even those in Myles, which is unfair to those kids that want to live there or were put there randomly. Also, I don’t see why this money can’t go to renovating other things such as the GSU or the dorms in West Campus. I just think that BU did not think this through clearly and it’s a real shame that they didn’t even poll the students here at BU.

  26. I am not all against this idea but, its completely UNNECESSARY!! Yes, who wouldn’t want to have a nice building around that improves student life, but BU is already far too EXPENSIVE!! so many people cant even afford it anymore!

    Please invest the money in both scholarships and improving our education!! The teachers are great but BU can always hire more professors (to replace the shitty ones) plus there can always be more research funding and labs established!
    BU can definitely wait to see such a thing built on its campus, especially when all the commodities are already in place somewhere else!!

    Besides, I don’t want to pay with my tuition for something I wont even get to use myself. Call me selfish, but its my money too!

    love you still BU

  27. People complaining about the ONE BLOCK walk from Myles to this new center: Consider the people who live in South Campus in dorms, not apartments. I lived there freshman AND sophomore years. The closest dining hall is warren. From buswell that is a 5 minute walk, but from where I lived freshman year, on carlton past beacon, it’s more like a 15 minute walk. Basically, suck it up and walk the extra block, it’s good for your health.

  28. I really think BU should have polled us about this. Why go on to do what the administration thinks is going to be good without listening to what the students want. We are paying for this, are we not? And also…that’s a lot of money for unnecessary things. First StuVi 2 and now this… It just seems like BU is worrying too much about luxuries and not enough about the fact that it costs $50,000 to go here and most people can’t pay that. Imagine what this project is going to do to the tuition. Yes go ahead and add all these new facilities. It’s not going to better the education you provide or the students that can afford to go here. This is ridiculous!

  29. If this came from ARAMARK, the corporation that runs the dining services on campus, than you can be sure that these plans were made to save money on the dining facilities. Overall, a student center in East is a good idea. I lived in Myles during my jr yr and 110 Bay State my sr yr and there really is no where to study in East. I think that people are right about renovating the GSU and West though. Even the library could use a face lift. More importantly, the money should be put into the educational facilities on campus. Seeing SMG and CAS classrooms are like visiting Earth and then traveling to Mars.

  30. I think the student body needs to protest this. This is our money and tuition going to pay for an unnecessary extra gym and dining hall that will neither centralize our campus or provide for more of a community feel. Instead, we will look like a giant strip of tall buildings on a cement road.

    50 million could easily be given out as grants so that the 3.65% increase we see every year won’t be such a devastating hit, ESPECIALLY in an economy like this, where graduating students can barely find jobs to pay back all their loans.

    This school DOES NOT need this. Danielson and Myles kids will not want to walk all the way there in the rain or snow (hello, we live in BOSTON, that’s all it ever does). It’s already a trek for Danielson kids. And don’t let them fool anyone that they’ll make some sort of shuttle for Danielson kids to make it to this unnecesary building, cuz as we see by the BU shuttle, it won’t be reliable.

    Thanks Dean Elmore. Once again, pretend you’re there for the students and then pull a stunt like that because we all know who signs your paycheck, and if you go against them, you won’t be in such high regard.
    – Does anyone else think this guy is a phony? I mean, really. He talked about how unfair the print quota reduction was, except HELLO! HE ALSO SIGNED OFF ON IT. IF Dean Elmore was here for students, rather than just some motivational speaker that made it from the streets to the commonwealth, then we wouldn’t have so many issues.

    But once again, look who signs that guy’s paycheck. We can’t blame that he isn’t here for us. He wasn’t elected to be here for us. He was chosen because everything that comes out of his mouth sounds like a speech. He makes it seem like he’s part of BU when he participates in the lipdub things or auctions, but if you look at what he signs off on or turns a blind eye too – you know the things that matter to students- you’ll see he’s as big a phony as Sarah Palin.

    THANKS.

  31. So basically I thought I was the only who felt this way. Thank goodness their are sane people that actually go here. When I read this, and I quote “We’re thinking about the student more holistically,” I literally fell off my chair. We already have all these amenities. I live East campus and I honestly do not mind walking to FitRec and GSU. When I came to this school I knew there would be a lot of walking. I actually cannot see another reason to make something we already have. I feel this would actually make our campus more divided because now East kids have no reason to go to the other side of campus.

    The only thing I think that would be reasonable to build is another student health because it’s difficult to get there when you’re sick and there are NO BUSES TO TAKE YOU THERE. There are so many problems with BU already why add another? For example I’m going to be a sophomore and the only housing left for me was WARREN TOWERS. WTF. BU should stop catering to the over privileged kids with housing like the StuVis and create some more housing in South or on East campus. And stop the leaking of East campus dorms. I mean are you kidding me?

  32. I am so frustrated by the lack of appeal of existing buildings on campus. Mugar Library is depressing and, in my opinion, a bit trashy. The buildings on cummington street as well as the science and engineering building need serious renovating. It feels like a dungeon inside those buildings and they do not even compare to the luxurious Photonics Building or SMG.

    Oh wait….what about our print quota?

  33. to all those who say “stop complaining” or “then go to another school”: this is clearly something the students are strongly opposed to; you can see it from the comments, and I have yet to talk to a single person who thinks it’s a good use of the school’s budget / our tuition money. we’re not whining because we’re spoiled or whining because we can’t be pleased- we’re whining because the University is doing something that will cost all of us and will NOT fix the problems it seeks to address. we are trying to be heard. we are trying to be proactive. if a conscious, caring, proactive student body bothers you, then… well, maybe YOU should transfer.

  34. So a lot of people are saying they think this is a bad idea because they wont get to use it. How do you all think the fit rec got built? Do you think the students who paid for it got to use it? It wasn’t built over night. This is how the world works…deal with it. Also luxury things like this centre is what you are paying for with your 50,000 dollar tuition. Cheaper schools, like UMass, are very good as well, they just do not have the fancy facilities. The extra money is for these state of the art facilities. There is no need to be selfish, this will benefit the school in the long run and just because it’s not going to benefit you directly, the school looking better after you leave is not going to hurt you.
    BU is very expensive, but they are based in the centre of a city where it is expensive to be, through staff pay and taxes. The tuition is not going to go down anytime soon.

  35. I agree about this center definitely needing some kind of mini-gym, and also something similar to BU Central for it really to be a place where East Campus students feel like they can come together. But with all those complaining about BU wasting tuition dollars – get over it. BU is a private institution and its tuition is on par with its closest competitors (BC, NYU,GW, etc.) If money is seriously such an issue, don’t go to a private university with a reputation for being stingy with scholarships and whose tuition is $45,000+.

  36. Honestly, East Campusers, stop complaining. I lived on South and made my daily trek to Warren or the GSU. You can walk one block to a brand new facility that will no doubt be the envy of the entire campus.

    I can see the self entitlement of the typical BU student has not changed since I graduated. They just don’t know what they have. Unbelievable.

  37. How is closing three dining facilities and opening one more convenient for people in East Campus? It’s certainly inconvenient for people in Danielsen, and nobody will want to live in Myles if there isn’t a dining hall. It’s so far from most classroom buildings, offices, the fitrec, and the library that it’s mostly worth it cuz of the convenience of having a dining hall in your building. It will be nice to have some offices in this side of campus. It would be great to have a workout room with decent weight lifting equipment. I can use the Stairmaster in Myles fine, but there are no free weights :/

  38. I have to co-sign with most of the students against the center. It’s nice that the administration wants to give East Campus something comparable to what West and Central Campus has, but the best thing they could do with this money is build a new dormitory for upperclassmen. Most of BU’s schools are on the East side however the only decent housing for upperclassmen on the East are the Comm Ave apartments and Bay State Rd. brownstones. All of us who wen through housing a few weeks ago we all know its virtually impossible to get in these buildings so a lot of people are forced to go to South or West to get comfortable living. This really isn’t fair for the people that have to trek in Boston’s harsh weather, especially considering the amount of money we pay for housing. I really hope our newly elected Student Union Reps do something about this.

  39. I honestly think this is a good idea. How much money was spent developing West campus, and now it is a lot more of a community? BU is going to spend our money on some crazy building project anyway– I’d rather they develop East campus a little before they build StuVi3.

    I think in order for it to be a success, and to really draw people together, the building has to have:
    – a gym with treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, and free weights.
    – a 24 hour study lounge

    It really is frustrating as an on-campus apartment resident to not be allowed in the dorm study lounges after 2am. And walking to FitRec in the snow, not fun.

    I also feel like there should be an open community meeting where students can voice their opinions about what should go in the building. (Let’s face it, they already announced their building plans, they aren’t going to change their minds now.)
    The only thing we can do is suggest changes to the building’s function that would best fulfill the university’s goal in constructing this building.

  40. For next year dorming, I was choosing between Towers and Hojo. However, I was able to choose between the two BECAUSE Towers has a dining hall and Hojo does not. I currently live in Warren, and I love how I don’t have to worry about going outside in the cold to eat. It’s so much more convenient having a dining hall inside the building. I am really against this idea of getting rid of the dining halls at Towers, Shelton, and Warren. They should use that money to build another gym on east campus or something…

  41. I understand wanting to combine the ERC and Career Services into one, multi-function location. However, also moving the Towers dining hall into this building is a mistake…I lived on South Campus and had to walk to Towers for all of my meals as it was. This wasn’t a huge hardship in the nicer, warmer months but come winter it could be a nightmare. If I forgot my ID by chance, I wasn’t allowed in. I had to return to my room and often ended up eating Pop Tarts for dinner. I also ate most breakfasts in my room as it was easier and faster. Refurbishing the Towers dining hall, while not the most cost-effective option is the most reasonable option, especially for the students located on South Campus.

  42. I am upset that BU is clearly focused on making money. Instead of following the desires of its students, BU opts for the creation of this East Campus Center that is relatively cheap. I can understand that it does not have a gym component, because, let’s be frank, there needs to be some draw to West campus.
    My first complaint is that the high traffic, that is currently spread out between three charming dining halls, will frustrate workers and students alike.
    Second, by shutting down Myles, BU is basically saying, “Screw you, Myles and Danielsen…especially you, Danielsen.” I am going to miss Towers because of the wonderful staff and its convenience, but I can understand that it will be closed due to its proximity to the upcoming East Campus Center; however, closing Myles makes no sense at all. It was unreasonable to demand students to walk from Danielsen to Myles knowing the harsh weather conditions that Mother Nature springs upon Boston, and it will be even more unreasonable to ask them to come to the East Campus Center for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in these same harsh weather conditions.
    Third, with the closing of the smaller dining halls, these dorms will become less desirable because they no longer have the benefit of having a dining hall in the building. While South is already far from dining halls, it is inherently different from Danielsen, Myles, Shelton, and Towers because it is not made up of large dormitories. People choose to live in South because it is quiet and in its own nook separated from campus, while people chose Myles, Shelton, and Towers due in part to its dining halls, and in part as last resort options. Danielsen gets shafted here, especially since residents cannot opt out of the dining plan and primarily use the kitchen instead.

Post a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *