SJU Concealed Actions
To The Editor:

St. John's University's recent decision to site a 485-bed dormitory in Jamaica Estates without consulting the community in advance came as a shock and disappointment to me and to local residents. My dismay was compounded when it became apparent that this decision was kept secret even from St. John's top community relations people.

Whenever any institution makes decisions and conducts major business in stealth- even from its own people- bad things happen.

That's what this dorm is to us, a bad thing, and a sucker punch to this community. If St. John's, or any institution, wants to site a facility in Jamaica Estates, or any community, it must be done in consultation and collaboration with the host community. This is simply Community Relations 101; had St. John's top management consulted with its community relations people about the dorm, [their own people] would have explained this to them.

What St. John's has done here is a badneighbor, bad-faith action of the highest order. I call upon St. John's to engage immediately with the neighbors of the dorm, the Jamaica Estates Association and my office to develop reasonable mitigations to the deleterious impacts of this most unwanted facility. James F. Gennaro Councilmember, 24th District