Over the summer, UGBC student senators researched the resources and policies in place for LGBTQ+ students at other Jesuit universities, student senator Kendra Preval, MCAS ’27, shared at the first Senate meeting of the 2025–26 academic year on Tuesday night.

“We focused on LGBTQ+ resource centers, campus climate, and how they handle bathrooms and housing,” Preval said. “We hope that we can share those resources with administrators and with [the UGBC Senate] to improve our resources at BC.”

Last spring, amid renewed conversations about the lack of a standalone LGBTQ+ resource center on campus, student senators explored new ways they could use UGBC’s resources and influence to more effectively support LGBTQ+ students.

During the summer, student senators also began work on updating the UGBC Constitution. 

“If you’ve seen our constitution before, don’t look at it—It’s awful,” said Will Cortes, student senator and MCAS ’28, “But luckily, we’re making a lot of progress. We did a lot of great work over the summer to try to basically put the document back together, update it, make sure that it’s in line with the school year.”

According to Cortes, updates to the UGBC Constitution are ongoing and could be completed within a few weeks to two months.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Senate filled three vacant positions. Isabella Ayalew, MCAS ’27, was confirmed as a student senator and Zoe Eliades, CSOM ’26, was confirmed as student athlete representative. Cortes was confirmed as president pro tempore.