In response riots following this year's Superbowl, Boston's city council has proposed an ordinance to create a centralized database of students who are living in Boston.
The database would track the addresses and phone numbers of all students living off-campus who attend Boston's sixty colleges and universities.
The ordinance was proposed following riots that occurred after the New England Patriots won the 2004 Superbowl in which one person was killed and several others were seriously injured. In addition, numerous cars were flipped over and private property was destroyed.
Students across Boston have spoken up in protest against the proposal claiming that it may infringe upon their civil liberties.
Boston University student Sean Carlson spoke in front of the city council and has become a major voice in the struggle against the ordinance.
"The argument is that the ordinance needs to be in effect because students living off-campus are destroying neighborhoods," Carlson said. "Putting in a database will theoretically allow police to track which students are causing trouble off-campus and prevent them [from causing trouble]. I feel like Boston is trying to blame all of the city's problems on students when being a student doesn't necessarily make us bad."
According to Charlottesville Mayor David E. Brown, although the University collects information about students who are living off-grounds for mailing purposes, the information is not directly available to University or Charlottesville police.
"I do not think that there are any issues locally involving our law enforcement where having a centralized database of information about our students would be necessary," Brown said. "I think that the privacy rights of our students are important."
Brown said that although there are issues with students parking illegally and being noisy at night, the city wishes to foster a neighborly relationship with all students at the University.
"The city of Charlottesville does its best to be a good neighbor to the University," Brown said. "For example, we encourage U. Va. students to come downtown by providing the free trolley. We want students to be able to enjoy our downtown mall."
Lydia Fantozzi, a sophomore at Boston's Emerson College who lives off-campus, said that she enjoys living off-campus because it affords her certain liberties that on-campus students do not enjoy.
"I think that living off-campus provides you with certain freedoms that the universities and local police shouldn't be able to restrict," she said. "I don't think a database will help deter future riots and other crimes because the obsession with sports goes past students. ing like what happened in February."
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