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Northeastern students rally over lack of communication after recent violence
Following a series of incidents near and on campus, students say the university has failed to provide timely and transparent safety updates.
A group of Northeastern University students and a faculty member gathered Monday afternoon to protest what they describe as a lack of transparency and communication from the administration following several violent incidents near campus.
The demonstration comes amid heightened safety concerns after a fatal police shooting Saturday morning near campus. Students at the rally said they have increasingly relied on news reports and police updates — rather than the university — to understand what is happening around them.
The most recent incident unfolded at an apartment on Hemenway Street, a short distance from campus, where a man barricaded himself inside while an emergency medical services clinician attempted to de-escalate the situation for nearly an hour.
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When the man opened the door, police said he stabbed an officer with a sword and knocked the clinician to the ground. Officers responded by deploying at least one Taser and firing a service weapon. The man was later pronounced dead.
The university sent three alerts that day, according to The Huntington News, Northeastern’s independent student newspaper. One alert, sent around 11:08 a.m., stated the incident “did not take place on Northeastern’s campus” and advised students to avoid the area. The Huntington News found the stabbing incident occurred 0.1 miles away from campus.
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Saturday’s events followed other recent incidents nearby, including a stabbing Wednesday morning near the intersection of Huntington Avenue and Gainsborough Street that left one person with nonlife-threatening injuries.
On March 27, a Northeastern student was stabbed outside the Marino Recreation Center, located on campus. Students received an email roughly two hours later notifying them of the assault and increased police patrols, according to The Huntington News.
In a statement to Boston.com, Northeastern Vice President of Communications Renata Nyul emphasized that the recent incidents have occurred off-campus but said the close proximity is “concerning.”
“The university’s police department works in close coordination with the Boston police,” Nyul said. “We are increasing patrols on all sides of the campus, and we will continue to keep the Northeastern community informed when incidents occur.”
Northeastern junior Jeff Franchetti told Boston.com that many students are turning to outside sources for information rather than relying on university alerts.
“Students are scared because they don’t know what’s going on,” he said.
Franchetti, a senator in the Student Government Association, said the protest aimed to push the administration to commit to more consistent and detailed communication.
“Greater transparency means greater safety,” he said, adding that students have voiced concerns about potential shootings happening near campus.
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He said he would like the university to send broader alerts — including text messages or campuswide emails — for both on- and off-campus threats or crimes.
One faculty member also expressed concern.
Kylie Bemis, an assistant teaching professor in Northeastern’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences, said the lack of communication leaves instructors without clear guidance.
“I don’t know if you want it to be up to your professors’ discretion to decide whether it’s safe for you to come to class,” Bemis said. “But I don’t think that should be my call to make. I think administration should have something to say, something to guide me on that.”
Lokesh Mukraj, chair of Northeastern’s Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter and co-chair of the Boston chapter, said the administration’s communication practices could have implications beyond campus safety, including how the university would handle federal immigration enforcement actions.
“I believe NUPD’s lack of response to the recent violence in and around campus is very indicative of what will happen if ICE comes onto campus,” she told Boston.com. “No one will be informed.”
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Mukraj added that student groups have previously sought more clarity from the administration on issues such as immigration policy — including more than 2,000 letters sent from Northeastern YDSA — but have not received responses.
“This is because Northeastern, very simply, does not care about its students. It cares about the profit they can make off of the student from the tuition and the profit they can make off of the international workers that run the lab, that run the research, that run entire departments,” she said, adding that international students make up roughly 40% of the student body.
Mukraj said she hopes the protest will lead to direct engagement with administrators, bringing demands to the bargaining table. She added that it has historically been difficult to get the administration to engage, noting that, in the past, the administration has declined invitations to a City Hall meeting on immigration issues and has denied speaking with student reporters at The Huntington News.
“The bare minimum in this situation would be to be present,” she said. “But that doesn’t seem like they can manage that.”
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