UGBC’s Senate held its inaugural meeting of the 2023–24 academic year on Tuesday night, highlighting plans to enact change within the organization and around Boston College’s campus.
“At our core, we’re trying to leave BC a better place than we found it,” Meghan Heckelman, UGBC vice president and LSEHD ’25, said.
The Senate appointed various members to procedural positions, including Ryan Milligan, academic affairs committee chair and MCAS ’26, as parliamentarian, and Katie Garrigan, intersectionality committee chair and MCAS ’25, as president pro tempore.
Heckelman also nominated Senator Cristina Gregory, MCAS ’26, as secretary.
The Senate appointed two new members. Jackson Sigalove, a member of the track and field team and MCAS ’24, was named student-athlete representative. Lindsay Meier, MCAS ’26, was appointed as the environment and sustainability policy coordinator—a position created by the Senate in its last meeting of the 2022–23 academic year.
Speaking with The Heights after the meeting, Heckelman said she wants to encourage the Senate to talk less about problems and more about solutions.
“That’s gonna be our goal—really to just take action steps [and] introduce practical things to drive real change,” Heckelman said. “By the end of the year, we want to have real results for students.”
Heckelman also added that another of her goals is to build a stronger direct line of communication between UGBC and the student body to better share its progress on initiatives.
“I think that people often hear about UGBC from a second-hand source and don’t hear from us directly,” Heckelman said. “Those second-hand sources are great, and it’s good to connect with students, but we want to be really in the room where it happens and touching base with students on a more regular basis.”
Looking at the year ahead, Heckelman said the Senate will once again strive to focus on the issues that affect all BC students.
“Things like dining, laundry, [and] housing,” Heckelman said. “It’s a little bit harder to get stuff done in those areas because they’re so long established, but we’re hoping to kind of chip away this year by being more diligent.”
Heckelman said she holds high hopes for the progress the Senate will be able to make in the coming year.
“I think that last year was a great step,” Heckelman said. “But I think that we could be great this year.”
