Alessandra Veveiros is collaborating with the Boston College Office of Global Education (OGE) to create an online module to help prospective study abroad students prepare for the application process, she shared at the UGBC Senate meeting Tuesday night.
“That module before sophomore year will streamline things and will also help students not get bulldozed by information at the study abroad first info meeting,” said Veveiros, MCAS ’27.
According to Veveiros, students will complete the module before they attend mandatory Study Abroad 101 meetings, which are required prior to starting their applications.
Veveiros said the module will add an element of reflection to the study abroad process, helping students consider what they hope to gain from the experience before they begin.
“They really want to make it very academic, professional, and job and career focused during your abroad,” Veveiros said. “They want to make sure students know what program will be best for their development.”
The module will also feature videos of students who have already studied abroad for students interested in studying abroad to watch, Veveiros added.
“They can hear from students who have been in the programs they’re looking for, and then just see how people have made the best of it and what they wish they had done differently and all that,” Veveiros said.
Later in the meeting, Danny Wise, student life committee chair and MCAS ’25, shared that the Senate plans to meet with BC Information Technology Services (ITS) to discuss digitizing BC Eagle IDs.
“We can reach out to them this week about that,” Wise said. “We have some good evidence of how they work and how they work on different platforms.”
Cece Mase, student senator and MCAS ’26, has experience with Clemson University’s digital IDs and their functionality across different platforms.
The last time the Senate met with ITS, administrators said they were hesitant to switch to digital IDs due to safety concerns, according to Mase.
“One of the concerns was the screenshotting and sharing it and people getting information through it,” Mase said. “But it only works if it’s being actively tapped somewhere, and there’s a password to access it on the phone, too.”
According to Mase, Clemson successfully navigated the issues ITS had raised and made its digital IDs capable of accessing all campus services.
“Clemson adopted the system of getting into buildings, dorm rooms, paying for everything, using it at the bookstore, so you have access to everything, which I think is a lot more convenient,” Mase said.
At the beginning of the meeting, the Senate approved two amendments to its constitution.
The first amendment reclassified the current Messina College seat from a special interest seat to a class representative seat, allowing Messina students to vote for their class senator in the upcoming UGBC election.
The second amendment created a second Messina College seat. The incoming class will vote on a class senator when they arrive on campus in the fall.
“From a Messina student perspective outside of UGBC, it makes us feel welcome and I appreciate you all for that,” said Maaz Shaikh, student senator and Messina ’26. “It makes us feel like we’re not just Messina students, but also Boston College students, and that’s a really big thing.”
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