Jordan Doty’s phone is cluttered with Boston College apps—so many that the UGBC student senator joked she could probably use a whole folder just for them.
“I swear, I have like 10 BC-labeled apps on my phone,” said Doty, MCAS ’28. “I need a folder for BC.”
Student senators prepared for an upcoming meeting with BC Information Technology Services (ITS) about the possibility of creating a centralized Agora Portal mobile app at the UGBC Senate meeting Tuesday night.
Some existing BC apps redirect students to the Agora Portal website, requiring them to log in again using their Agora credentials. A single, centralized Agora Portal app could eliminate this hassle, Doty said.
“Agora is the central place for all apps,” said Katie Garrigan, UGBC vice president and MCAS ’25. “So, if that can just be made into an app, then you have a BC app for everything.”
Will Cortes, student senator and MCAS ’28, said he plans to suggest adding a bookmark feature to the Agora Portal, allowing students to easily access apps they use frequently, like the course registration website.
“A bunch of those websites that people are going to want to use a lot, I feel like, should be really highlighted on the page,” Cortes said.
Earlier in the meeting, student senators recapped a recent discussion with Ethan Sullivan, senior associate dean for undergraduate programs in the Carroll School of Management, about what they saw as a lack of transparency regarding the CSOM curve.
“If the curve isn’t supposed to be pushing people down, but it is in the syllabi, we need to figure out what the curve is in itself and what the implications can have,” said Will Rafti, student senator and MCAS ’27.
According to Rafti, CSOM’s guidelines stipulate that no more than 15 percent of students can receive an A, no more than 35 percent can receive an A- or higher, and no more than 70 percent can receive a B+ or lower.
Most CSOM syllabi include information on grade distribution, outlining what percentages of students will fall into particular grade ranges. Rafti pointed out that this distribution seems to vary between different classes.
“I feel like right now, it’s very up to the discretion of the professor, which isn’t necessarily wrong,” Rafti said. “But, if it’s becoming a standard for the entirety of CSOM, I think it should kind of be more concrete among all classes.”
These percentages are not meant to curve grades down, but Rafti said students have encountered inconsistencies.
Mariame Diop, student senator and MCAS ’27, said some professors seem unclear about the curve policy.
“My finance professor on the first day was like, ‘You guys are not all getting A’s, no matter if you guys all earn them,’” Diop said. “It tells me that if that’s really the policy, they’ve been told otherwise.”
Shifting focus, Cristina Gregory, student senator and MCAS ’26, said the University is potentially open to establishing an American Sign Language minor. The proposed minor would consist of six courses—four introductory language courses and two cultural electives, according to Gregory.
Creating the minor requires a lengthy approval process, and enough student interest would be needed to make it a reality, Gregory added.
“There’s a lot of steps for us to do, and it’s kind of on us, as students, to demonstrate interest and then propose that interest to the right people,” Gregory said.
Correction (1/29/2025, 11:14 a.m.): A previous version of this article misstated CSOM’s grading guidelines and has been corrected to reflect that no more than 35 percent of students, not 55 percent, can receive an A- or higher, according to Will Rafti, student senator and MCAS ’27.
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