Boston University

BU faux-bomb lady gets probation

adamg — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:04:42 -0400

Jennifer Douglas, who told workers at Boston University's Mugar Library she had a bomb on May 4, yesterday admitted to sufficient facts in the case and was sentenced to two years' probation and mental-health treatment - and was ordered to stay the hell away from BU - the Suffolk County District Attorney's office announced.

She was also ordered to stay away from the Bethel AME Church in Boston.

How BU is doing its part to encourage T ridership

adamg — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:35:25 -0400

By forcibly removing any bicycles not attached to a rack on Comm. Ave.

Prosecutors: This time the young woman actually said she had a bomb

adamg — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:09:25 -0400

Jennifer Douglas, 28, is charged with making a false bomb threat by walking into BU's Mugar Library with two boxes and telling an employee she had a bomb yesterday evening.

The library was evacuated as the Boston Fire Department and the police bomb squad investigated. They eventually concluded the library was safe to re-open. The Daily Free Press reports the boxes contained a cuckoo clock, a framed picture and newspapers (it also published a picture of the boxes).

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports Douglas was arraigned this morning in Brighton District Court and was sent to the Eric Lindemann Center in Boston for 20 days to determine her competence.

Douglas could get between 2 1/2 and 20 years in jail, depending on the nature of the charges brought against her.

Why a panel of scientists is worried about the BU biolab

adamg — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:45:39 -0400

Read for yourself the National Research Council report on why it thinks more study is needed before BU should be allowed to study deadly pathogens in the South End.

Biolab follies - Phoenix report.

The Stata Center sucks? Yeah, well so does much of BU, critic sniffs

adamg — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:57:25 -0400

Silber Knocks New Architecture in Book, Built Junk at Boston U.

One guess what the author of that review of John Silber's harangue about new buildings at MIT and Harvard thinks about former BU strongman Silber's own fleet of new buildings across the river.

... Is he angry that his 13 million square feet have risked nothing, aspired to nothing and achieved no glory for the institution he led for so long?

He ought to be.

Via Geoff Edgers.

They could become their own case study

adamg — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:11:24 -0400

Gribley reports:

BU Medical Campus wisely decided to spray the lawn with pesticides the day before the first sunny, warm spring day. Did the nasty smell and the little yellow signs stop people from playing, picnicing, and lying out on the grass? Of course not.

Why are we spraying the lawn with these things, exactly? Isn't there a School of Public Health and a School of Medicine on this campus? You'd think we'd know better than this.

A Common complaint

adamg — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:04:50 -0400

The Tab reports police filed a license violation against the Common Ground on Harvard Avenue after a woman allegedly committed "assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (pint glass)" on April 5 by throwing her stein at another patron, getting him in the face and sending him to the hospital (report does not state if the pint glass still had beer in it).

The police blotter also contains some useful advice for BU students: Roommates might not appreciate having their shampoo bottles filled with what appears to be semen or having male genitalia drawn on their dry-erase boards and so might call the police (who will then advise the lot of you to go seek some counseling at BU).

A spirited post

adamg — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:07:14 -0400

Go figure: The old Charlesgate Hotel is haunted, and Eugene O'Neil's ghost makes occasional appearances at BU's Shelton Hall. Sam Baltrusis, writing a book on the paranormal at New England campuses, discusses.

BU students lead national effort to trash a Days Inn

adamg — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:02:40 -0400

The Allston-Brighton Tab reports a national fraternity conclave - headed up by some BU students - got a bit out of hand at the Soldiers Field Road Days Inn this past Sunday. Well, you know how boys are.

... The hotel manager told police Sunday, March 23, that dozens of people from the Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity were allegedly going from room to room and destroying items. While officers were trying to clear the hallways, the various groups continued to run from floor to floor to avoid the police. ...

Via Bostonist.

Fenway bracing for post-Super Bowl trouble

adamg — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:54:09 -0500

Fenway? Colin the Bold reports parking meters all around the neighborhood are already plastered with "No Parking Sun - Mon" signs. Huh? Oh, right, Boylston Street, the preferred rioting grounds of students everywhere.

But lest one think the BPD is discriminating against Northeastern and BU students, Police Commissioner Ed Davis warns he will brook no nonsense from anybody Sunday night:

Davis said come Sunday night, police will be on every corner near college areas.

That's a lot of corners, from Brighton to downtown.