The Student Assembly (SA) unanimously voted to pass a bill allocating $200 of its budget to fund an induction ceremony for Boston College’s chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, a national history honor society, in its meeting on Tuesday night.
“[UGBC President Lubens Benjamin] sent me an email forwarded from Phi Alpha Theta asking for money—$200 for an induction ceremony,” said Joshua Golden, chair of the Community Relations Committee and MCAS ’25. “We have about $5,500 left, so we can give some away.”
The bill, titled “An Act Concerning Monetary Support to Phi Alpha Theta,” detailed that $200 from UGBC’s current remaining $5,572.42 budget will go toward funding the induction ceremony on April 12.
“I think it’s just a quick and easy, nice little thing we can do for them since we have so much money and we’re heading into the latter part of the school year,” Golden said.
UGBC Vice President Julia Spagnola, MCAS ’23, shared that UGBC was not the first organization Phi Alpha Theta sought funding from.
“They did try to get funding from the history department, and that did not work out for some reason,” Spagnola said. “So that’s why we’re here to make sure that they get the funding.”
Once the SA voted to pass the bill, Jonah Kotzen, policy coordinator for the Council for Students with Disabilities and MCAS ’24, suggested that representatives should consider how to spend the remaining budget.
“I think it might be useful for us to brainstorm exactly how we can spend that money going forward, whether it be to give to more clubs or you know, people in need,” Kotzen said. “I suggested merch, but that might be a little bit too extravagant for us. Some people don’t like the fact that we spend money on ourselves, so I’m just kind of curious what you guys have to say.”
Katie Garrigan, Montserrat Coalition SA representative and MCAS ’25, suggested creating a form where clubs could request funding from the UGBC budget.
“Up to $100 or $200 just to be able to try to help as many people as we can and let them know that UGBC is an organization that is also looking out for other groups on campus, especially those smaller ones that have been suffering from some funding issues,” Garrigan said.
Spagnola expressed support for helping clubs with their funding, but she also noted that UGBC should not be the sole organization students groups turn to for monetary support.
“I think UGBC is a space that students with need can come to, but I think we don’t want to be just the only branch on campus that’s doing that work,” Spagnola said. “So I think, you know, we need to be selective on our end, in terms of where that need is demonstrated.”
During the public comment section at the end of the meeting, Matt Razek, associate director for student programming at BC and primary advisor to UGBC, also said that students will receive an email with more information about Marathon Monday sometime this week.
Spagnola shared that Vice President for Student Affairs Shawna Cooper Whitehead hinted at who will be performing at this year’s Marathon Monday in a public panel last Friday.
“Male Performer,” Spagnola said. “Hip-hop/pop.”
