Boston University Student Calls On Peers To "Stop Acting Like Idiots"
BOSTON (CBS) - This is the week Heather Potts had enough.
Like her classmates, the Boston University senior has endured months of scandals that included alleged sex abuse by a pair of hockey players, peeping toms in the dorms, and reports of alcohol abuse and savage hazing at a fraternity and a sorority.
"I think that it's not the way BU really is," Potts says. "And right now if you were to Google 'Boston University' you're not going to get my experience for the past four years."
So Potts wants to fix that.
Her Tuesday letter to the school paper urges all BU undergrads, some 18,000 of them, to post just one positive experience about BU somewhere online.
"I've gotten a lot of positive responses from BU students who feel the same way I do," says Potts. "And so that's been really nice."
Her letter calls on fellow students to "stop acting like idiots", acknowledging that the choices of just a few students can tarnish the reputations of everyone else.
In the letter she wrote: "BU is not an urban circle of hell where sorority girls drink too much and frat boys are tied up in Allston dungeons until they are found by the police," Potts wrote. "Almost everyone at BU is against hazing, sexual assault and rape – and until recently, that has gone without saying. But we can no longer stand by and watch as all this news damages the reputation of the school and community we love. We have to say something."
"I thought it was great," offered junior Martin Nolan about the letter. "I thought it kind of captured what everybody has been thinking without knowing they were thinking it."
"Everyone's been very frustrated with the negative publicity we've been getting," according to sophomore Amanda Munoz. "We all know the wonderful things that happen here and it's a shame to see all the negative press we're getting."
