Most Boston colleges agree to share off-campus student housing addresses with city code enforcers

A month ago, we wrote about how Boston College refused to release addresses for off-campus students, citing FERPA. They’re holding to that decision for now, but 21 other Boston-area colleges agreed to release the data at a meeting Wednesday with Mayor Martin J. Wash.

After the meeting, Boston College said its attorneys are studying the request to make sure it follows federal law, according to The Boston Globe.

The push for student addresses came after the Globe published an investigation into overcrowding and hazardous conditions in off-campus student housing, which led to at least one fatal fire that killed a 22-year-old Boston University student, Binland Lee. City ordinance permits only four unrelated people in a home, but students are living with as many as twelve people in a house to save money. Activists asked for universities to release students’ off-campus addresses to build a database to detect dangerous, overcrowded living situations, according to the Globe. Boston University was the only school to comply.

Boston College was the only school Wednesday to refuse to release data. The schools that agreed were: Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, Berklee College of Music, Boston Architectural College, Boston University, Emerson College, Emmanuel College, Fisher College, Harvard University, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New England Conservatory, Northeastern University, Roxbury Community College, Simmons College, Suffolk University, Tufts University, University of Massachusetts Boston, Urban College of Boston and Wentworth Institute of Technology.

“Directory information,” including names and mailing addresses, is not protected under FERPA unless a student specifically signs an opt-out form, SPLC Executive Director Frank LoMonte wrote last month. He pointed out that Boston College’s own privacy policy includes directory information as public information.

— Dani Kass