SA Shows Support for LGBTQ+ Resource Center

By Olivia JOung

News Editor

The Student Assembly (SA) voted to pass a resolution expressing its support of continued proposals for an on-campus LGBTQ+ resource center at its meeting Tuesday night.

“The SA wishes to express our solidarity with the GLBTQ+ Leadership Council in an ongoing effort to enlighten the BC administration of the necessity of an LGBTQ+ resource center,” Jessica Orrell, SA representative and MCAS ’26, read from the resolution. “LGBTQ+ students exist on this campus and deserve the same opportunities to thrive as any other student here.”

The resolution is a written notice of support for the GLBTQ+ Leadership Council (GLC) that responds to a recent Boston Globe article about calls for BC to open an LGBTQ+ resource center.

“We wish to express our concern that while other institutions continue embracing diversity, inclusions, and acceptance, Boston College fails to meet nationwide and regional standards,” Orrell read.

Orrell—who presented the resolution alongside Ryan Milligan, SA representative and MCAS ’26, and Buck Popolo, GLC policy coordinator and CSOM ’23—continued reading from the resolution, adding that other Jesuit institutions such as Fordham University and the University of San Francisco work toward LGBTQ+ inclusivity and that BC should follow suit.

“Why are their Jesuit values different from ours?” Orrell read. “In the words of our own president, President Father Leahy, during Boston College’s second annual Diversity Summit:

‘When individuals are not recognized or don’t feel at home or unable to contribute as they might, we all suffer.’”

During the period of questioning, Joshua Golden, Community Relations Committee chair and MCAS ’25, expressed concern about whether the resolution would enact concrete change.

“I don’t think it’s even a fear I have, it’s more of just an idea that this may seem as if … we’ll only take [the resource center] as an option and we won’t take a small expansion,” Golden said.

Meghan Heckelman—director of student initiatives, UGBC vice president–elect, and LSEHD ’25—said that while she understood Golden’s input, it is important for the SA to express its support for building a center, even if change doesn’t happen right away.

“We know that everyone wants us to have a formal statement that’s out there in solidarity, like I think that’s very important, even if that’s not going to necessarily do anything immediately,” Heckelman said.

Orrell also emphasized the importance of publicly addressing the desire for a resource center at BC, especially after the Globe article.

“If we choose to stay silent at a moment like this, I think that that would almost speak louder than words and that would say that we’re okay with the administration staying silent after all this pressure is coming in,” Orrell said.

Later in the meeting, Milligan said he, Daniel Wise, Dining Advisory Board representative and MCAS ’25, and Katie Garrigan, Montserrat Coalition representative and MCAS ’25, would be tabling for a survey measuring satisfaction levels with BC Dining this week.

Garrigan added that she recently spoke with Director of Dining Services Beth Emery, who informed her that BC Dining will be introducing three different dining plans—light, base, and premium—starting in the 2023–24 academic year.

“And so everyone is going to be opted into the middle meal plan, and you’ll have until like the end of the add/ drop period to either move up or move down your meal plan,” Garrigan said.

Garrigan said beginning next year, the minimum for each dining plan will also increase.

“They just kind of cited inflation, you know—costs to get food in, to get workers, things of that nature,” she said. “And also this year, the most amount of people ran out of their meal plan money than in previous years, and so they’re just trying to avoid that now.” n