BC Dining is considering removing bottled drinks like Core Power from dining halls next year due to high levels of theft by students, said Lindsay Meier, MCAS ’26, at the UGBC Senate meeting on Tuesday night.
“[BC Dining] said that next year, bottled drinks are pretty much going to be gone from the dining halls because stealing has been such a big problem,” Meier, environmental and sustainability policy coordinator, shared in an update from her meeting with the dining advisory committee.
While BC Dining has yet to make a final decision on the matter, Meier said that stealing is a small part of a larger problem that bottled drinks present for BC Dining.
“There’s just so many problems with having [bottled drinks] there,” Meier said. “There’s—without fail—complaints about the price of the Core Powers at meetings [with BC Dining], so I think that’s just another reason for them to get rid of it.”
Meier said informing students of the possibility that bottled drinks may be removed from dining halls next year could cause them to see the consequences of theft from BC Dining.
“I feel like right now, people are like, ‘Oh, you can steal, there’s no consequences,’” Meier said. “But, if we let them know that there’s going to be consequences, that might deter them a little bit.”
Meier added that BC Dining is also facing chronic staff shortages and actively recruiting student workers—especially at Lower Live and Addie’s.
“That’s why there’s a lot of problems,” Meier said. “That’s why, in Lower, there’s not the rack that rotates for dishes, it’s just the trash cans, because right now they don’t have dishwashers. So we really, really need people to start working there.”
Later in the meeting, senators discussed ways to prevent break-ins at students’ off-campus houses. Meghan Heckelman, UGBC vice president and LSEHD ’25, said break-ins have been a consistent problem this year.
“BCPD gets involved and it seems like there’s not too much that the people who are living in a house can do because they’re breaking in,” Heckelman said. “It’s not really a matter of ‘lock your doors, lock your windows,’ because people are just breaking into the houses.”
Max Winkler, community relations committee chair and MCAS ’24, proposed collaborating with the Office of Off-Campus Student Living to compile a guidebook of advice from students who lived off-campus in previous years to help rising juniors.
“I’m guessing most people that are living off-campus have never lived by themselves before, so I think some sort of collection of wisdom from people that were there last year, just to provide every year for people that are living off campus that year—I know a lot of people that will contribute to that,” Winkler said.
Senators also voiced support for organizing a UGBC Ring doorbell giveaway—potentially as part of a collaboration with BCPD or Student Affairs—that would seek to educate students about how to best protect their houses.
“I think it’s a great idea because a Ring doorbell isn’t necessarily cheap, so not everyone has the opportunity to purchase one to protect their off-campus house,” said Anika Rosengarten, student senator and MCAS ’24.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Jonah Kotzen, UGBC president and MCAS ’24, said students expressed concerns about funding clinicals and practicums to University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., at a recent Alpha Sigma Nu event.
“We had a lunch with Father Leahy, and he asked us what were some of our biggest concerns on campus and we brought up the practicum and clinical thing to him, so he’s aware of it,” Kotzen said.
