Promoting campus “physical and psychological safety,” including for marginalized populations, is the charge of a new advisory group to University leaders. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

University News

New Community Safety Advisory Group to Foster “Physical and Psychological Safety”

Will recommend strategies to enhance community safety, with an emphasis on students of color and other underrepresented campus communities

Andrea L. Taylor (COM’68), BU senior diversity officer, will chair a new committee advising University leaders on how campus law enforcement can best “foster physical and psychological safety and security,” particularly for students of color and other underrepresented, nontraditional, and societally marginalized communities, President Robert A. Brown announced Monday.

In an email to the BU community, Brown outlines the tasks and membership criteria of the Community Safety Advisory Group (CSAG), which he said will meet at least twice a year. “The formation of the Community Safety Advisory Group,” he writes, “marks a new level of community input into the processes and policies of those members of our community who dedicate themselves to creating a safe and welcoming environment for all of us and for visitors to our campuses. I look forward to working with them in the years ahead.”

“Our immediate next step is to recruit CSAG membership from the faculty and staff, the undergraduate and graduate student body, and one or more community representatives,” says Taylor, who stepped down as a University trustee earlier this year to become BU’s inaugural senior diversity officer. “A robust, interactive communications plan will be developed to make our work a visible resource to all and to give voice to the broad range of concerns.”

Brown had announced in June his intention to create the CSAG, following nationwide protests over killings of African Americans by police and others. The new group will report to him and advise University leaders, including Kelly Nee, chief of the Boston University Police Department (BUPD) and executive director of public safety.

The CSAG’s structuring followed consultations with BU affiliates on the Charles River and Medical Campuses led by Angela Onwuachi-Willig, School of Law dean and a professor of law, and Kenneth Elmore (Wheelock’87), associate provost and dean of students.

“Our discussions with community members could, in many ways, be titled ‘A Tale of Two Campuses,’” Onwuachi-Willig says. “On the Charles River Campus, students raised some concerns about police practices, such as the wearing of guns at events where they viewed weapons as unnecessary, or students raised questions about whether events hosted by some groups were more likely to have a police presence than others. 

“By and large, though, the students, staff, and faculty on the Charles River Campus wanted the BU police officers to become more integrated into campus, even if some believed the police force should be reduced. They wanted to get to know our police officers and wanted police officers to simply feel like just another part of the community.”

Feedback from the Medical Campus was more mixed, Onwuachi-Willig says: “Some people of all races…felt safer and more protected because of the police presence, given the greater crime in the area. Others shared concerns about how police handled issues in the gentrifying area, though the concerns mostly seemed to be about the [Boston police], not the BUPD.”

“One of the most interesting concerns was about unevenness in treatment by public safety officers, a group we did not personally get a chance to speak with,” she says. “Students, staff, and faculty of color, particularly those who are Black, felt like public safety officers on the Medical Campus were more likely to request that they show their ID to enter a building or were more likely to assume they did not belong on a campus bus; their issue was not with having to show their ID, they just felt like their belonging on campus was more likely to be questioned than it was for whites on the Medical Campus.”

The opinions of BUPD officers sometimes agreed with those of community members, Onwuachi-Willig says. “For example, police officers generally agreed with lay community members’ view that social workers, counselors, or those with expertise in mental health should accompany them on wellness checks or similar types of calls.”

Taylor says that “the comprehensive, campus-wide examination of community safety and security, led by Elmore and Onwuachi-Willig, has set the stage for ongoing oversight, innovation, and stakeholder engagement to ensure that policing at BU is a force for good, while simultaneously incorporating policies and protocols that are bias-free, effective, and equitable to better protect and serve all members of the community.” 

The CSAG, Brown writes, will make recommendations on “(1) issues related to the safety and security of all members of the Boston University community; (2) the relationship between the BUPD and the University community; (3) training of the BUPD; and (4) relevant data collection related to the BUPD’s work.”

Its goals will include recommending campus safety and security strategies “with an emphasis on the safety of students of color, and other underrepresented, non-traditional, and societally marginalized communities on campus,” as well as recommendations when needed “about BUPD policies, procedures, and practices, including policies governing de-escalation in instances in which use of force is considered or imminent.”

Brown says that the group would also review BUPD training “in non-discriminatory or bias-free policing policies to ensure police officers work effectively and equitably with all members of the Boston University community.”

The CSAG will solicit community input via a web page and other means. Serving with Taylor will be representatives of the following groups:

• Three vice chairs (serving for three-year terms) who are faculty members representing the Charles River Campus and the Medical Campus;
  
• Six undergraduate students selected by Elmore, representing student government and student organizations;
  
• Four graduate students from the Charles River Campus, selected by Daniel Kleinman, associate provost for graduate affairs, and representing school and college graduate student organizations and the Graduate Student Advisory Board;
  
• A School of Law student selected by Onwuachi-Willig;
  
• Two Medical Campus students selected by Karen Antman, School of Medicine dean and Medical Campus provost, representing student organizations for the three schools on the campus;
  
• One member of the Faculty Council;
  
• Two Charles River Campus faculty members selected by Jean Morrison, University provost and chief academic officer;
  
• One Medical Campus faculty member selected by Antman;
  
• Three BU staff members nominated and selected by Gary Nicksa, senior vice president for operations;
  
• One community representative nominated by Jake Sullivan, vice president for government and community affairs; and
  
• Ex officio members: Nee; Elmore; Crystal Williams, vice president and associate provost for community and inclusion; Michael Donovan, vice president for campus planning and operations; and a member of the Office of the General Counsel.