BU suspends 12 for violations
Twelve Boston University students busted for violating the college’s coronavirus gathering rules have been suspended for the fall semester.
The decision to suspend the 12 students — and not give them a tuition refund — comes in the wake of 11 Northeastern University students getting dismissed for violating social distancing rules earlier this semester .
The 12 BU students are tied to attending off-campus Allston parties on Oct. 3.
The BU administration’s website reported that students at the parties did not follow COVID-19 rules, including wearing masks and physical distancing.
Also, the website reported “underage drinking, physical assault, and disturbing the peace” at these parties.
Five other students are also on deferred suspension for the rest of the academic year, Dean Kenneth Elmore told BU Today.
“The suspended students will not receive a tuition refund, and when they return for spring semester, they will also be on deferred suspension, a status where any subsequent rules violation results in full suspension,” BU administration’s website reported.
“Elmore says the physical assault occurred that Saturday night and involved one student throwing a beer can that ricocheted off a building into another student, and the disturbance of the peace involved general noisemaking and the smashing of a toilet seat in the street,” the website reported.
The suspensions come as the university this week reported an increase in coronavirus cases, sparking the campus to implement new rules on Thursday.
Students now need a green daily attestation badge — showing a healthy daily symptom screening report — to enter dining halls, the George Sherman Union and several other public spaces on campus.
The 12 BU students who were suspended have not tested positive for the virus, and “there is currently no indication that the coronavirus was spread at any of the three parties,” BU’s website reported.
The website added, “Nevertheless, the incidents, and the ramifications from them, come at a time when University leaders are concerned over a dramatic uptick in positive results in BU’s coronavirus campus testing program.”