A$1.6 BILLION bid by Boston College to be ‘‘the world’s leading Catholic university and theological center’’ could add up to a 10-year headache for nearby residents in Brighton. College officials should be willing to adjust their ambitious vision if they hope to win local support and city approval for their plan.
From an institutional perspective, the BC master plan covers all the bases: new academic centers; an attractive student center and recreation complex; laboratories; playing fields; fine arts complex, and new dormitories for undergraduates. The expansion, which would increase the size of the campus by more than 50 percent, would clearly put BC in a good position to compete for the best students and faculty for many years ahead. But what is good for BC is not necessarily good for its neighbors.
The element of the plan that deserves the most attention from the Menino administration —which needs to approve the required permits — is BC’s bid to house 500 undergraduates across Commonwealth Avenue on what BC is now calling its ‘‘Brighton campus’’ — land the college bought from the Archdiocese of Boston. The site, bounded mostly by Lake and Foster streets, seems well-suited for the proposed museum, fine arts district, playing fields, and new School of Theology and Ministry. But by pushing undergraduate dormitories closer to residential areas, the college is stirring suspicion. The students have a well-earned reputation for hard drinking and loud partying, not ways to endear themselves to neighbors.
BC’s president, the Rev. William Leahy, points to a buffer zone of trees between the two proposed dorms and homes on Lake Street. But he is unwilling to pledge that the buffer zone will remain a permanent fixture. Such a stiff-necked approach is likely to invite the same inflexible attitude on the part of neighbors.
BC deserves a lot of credit for its intention to bring hundreds of students now living in residential neighborhoods back onto campus. Too many students can destabilize a community. Wisely, Leahy even wants to ban BC students from living in one-and two-family houses. But BC does not make a convincing case why the shift can’t occur on its existing campus south of Comm. Ave.
The master plan calls for the construction of at least two new, four- or five-story dorms on that end of the campus. Adding a few more stories to those buildings and maximizing the use of land now occupied by outmoded modular housing units could lessen or even eliminate the need for student housing on the new Brighton part of the campus.
BC wants its students back on campus. Bostonians want that, too. But the college can’t merely expand the boundaries of the campus and declare victory.
