Four Providence city councilors have proposed requiring every post-secondary school in the city that holds in-person classes to report to the city by Nov. 2 each year how many of its students live on campus and how many do not. The council's Special Committee on Health, Opportunity, Prosperity and Education (HOPE) has the ordinance on its agenda for 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, in Committee B on the third floor of City Hall, 25 Dorrance St.
The sponsors are Councilwoman Shelley T. Peterson, Councilor Jill S. Davidson, Senior Deputy Majority Leader John Goncalves and Councilwoman Althea A. Graves, according to the council's record of the ordinance, which was referred to committee at the Oct. 1 council meeting. The HOPE agenda says all items on it are scheduled for discussion and possible vote or other action. The committee's chair is Councilor Juan M. Pichardo.
What schools would have to report
Under the text of the ordinance, each report would give three numbers as of the date of collection: total students enrolled, students who live on campus and students who do not. The text says the report must not contain a student's name, student identification number, telephone number, email address, unit number, expected graduation date or other personally identifiable information. It also says nothing in the article requires a school to provide information that state or federal law bars it from disclosing.
The ordinance defines a student as "any city resident who is enrolled at a school whether full-time or part-time." By our reading, that wording would leave out enrolled students who live outside Providence. The text does not say how a school would determine which students are city residents; it says only that reports reflect "enrollment and student residence information available to the school."
Enforcement
The director of the Department of Planning and Development, or a designee, would write rules on applying the requirement, exemptions and enforcement. If the director decides a school has not complied, the city would notify it of the violation, and the school would have 30 calendar days from receipt of the notice to file the annual report. The ordinance lists no fine or other penalty. It takes effect on passage.
Stated purpose
The ordinance's opening clauses say Boston, Somerville and Medford have adopted "university accountability requirements" to collect information on off-campus student housing. They say consistent, anonymized reporting would give Providence "information necessary to better inform housing and land use policies" along with neighborhood and municipal service planning.
The posted agenda packet for the Nov. 16 meeting contains the agenda and the ordinance texts. It includes no letters, testimony or statements from any school. The same agenda also lists the proposed ban on automated license plate readers.
