Featured
“Northeastern, in my opinion, goes above and beyond in engaging with the community,” says Haseeb Hosein, a captain in the Boston Police Department and district commander for Roxbury and Mattapan.
Haseeb Hosein is a captain in the Boston Police Department, serving as district commander for Roxbury and Mattapan.
A 35-year veteran of the force who was born in Trinidad but grew up in Dorchester, Hosein has seen the city’s neighborhoods change over the years.
But one of the constants, he says, is Northeastern University’s unwavering commitment to the community.
And that commitment is on full display every year when the calendar turns from August to September and thousands of college students move into apartments from Mission Hill to the Fenway.
“Northeastern, in my opinion, goes above and beyond in engaging with the community,” says Hosein, who praised the university for being an excellent partner with the BPD — and with many other neighborhood organizations.
In fact, Hosein says, Northeastern begins preparing for its students to move into off-campus housing months in advance.
At the same time, he says, the university considers the needs of permanent residents.
“Northeastern provides resources to the community,” Hosein says. “And for these kids coming in here.”
Those resources include additional security in the neighborhoods, Hosein says, including two police officers on duty every night Thursday through Sunday.
Patricia Flaherty, a 40-year resident of Mission Hill, recently observed Northeastern students moving into their apartments while she enjoyed a coffee on her front porch.
In many neighborhoods, Northeastern staff and volunteers helped students and parents unload cars and moving trucks, while others managed traffic and directed vehicles to overflow parking lots.
Jordan Gonzalez-Goss, a Northeastern senior studying economics, was one of those volunteers. She arrived at Mission Hill at 8:30 a.m. Sunday to assist with the move-in process and distribute parking passes.
“For me, it’s really valuable to learn from different people and the stories of other people living life,” Gonzalez-Goss says. “It’s really great to just see a smile on people’s faces and help them in ways that maybe other people can’t.”
Flaherty used to be a member of the neighborhood’s task force that keeps landlords and universities accountable for student renters.
“Students used to move into units that had hundreds of code violations,” she says. “That’s typically not the case anymore.”
Flaherty also credited Northeastern’s involvement in improving Fitzgerald Park — helping make it an arboretum — and the university’s co-ops who work with Mission Hill Neighborhood Housing Services where she works.
“It allows us to improve our capacity and it also allows students to see what it’s like to work for a community nonprofit,” she says.
David Curran, 46, is a lifelong resident of Mission Hill. He says Northeastern has obviously been working with its students living off campus.
“The past five years in general have been better overall,” he says. “There’s definitely been some planning around it, and it’s paying off.”
Curran is especially impressed by the Northeastern students who volunteer their time to keep the neighborhood’s streets and sidewalks clean.
“That’s probably the coolest thing I’ve seen,” he says.
In addition to the volunteers, John Tobin, Northeastern’s vice president for city and community engagement, says the university supplements city trash services by organizing extra trash trucks.
“We want to make sure the streets and sidewalks are just as clean as they were a week ago, so you can’t even tell moving had occurred,” Tobin says.
District 8 City Councilor Sharon Durkan was walking the neighborhoods on Sunday, welcoming students, and taking requests from residents.
“New Mission Hill residents have a unique calling,” she says, “which is to get involved in their community.”
Those new residents include third-year Northeastern students Emily Anderegg and McKenna Reardon, who moved into their apartment on Sunday — an updated five-bedroom unit on Hillside Street with an open floor plan and a big kitchen.
Anderegg, a neuroscience major, and Reardon, a finance and accounting major, met while living in a Northeastern residence hall as first-year students.
They were joined by Caoimhe Loane and Eimear Tully, both fourth-year Northeastern students from Ireland. They like living in Mission Hill, they say, because of its lively atmosphere and friendly neighbors.
“Any friends we’ve made, they’re kind of in this area,” Loane says.