The Boston University Student Government received updates on the Warren Towers renovation project and approved funding requests from four student organizations during its Monday meeting.
Representatives from BU Project Management team attended the meeting to give a presentation on the Warren Towers renovation and discuss the project’s impact on current and future students.
David Flynn, assistant vice president of major capital projects in Campus Planning and Operations, told StuGov members the details of the renovations, which will be carried out over the next three years.
Warren dining hall will be completed and open to students in the fall of 2026, according to Flynn.
Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services Paul Riel explained what the finished renovation should look like. The rooms will include air conditioning, individual student-controlled thermostats, private bathrooms, new floors, updated fire alarms and electronic locks allowing digital key access to rooms, Riel said.
“We’re not changing the architecture of the building itself, but what’s happening is [Warren] completely gets a facelift,” Riel said.
Riel said amidst the closure of A Tower next academic year, BU remains committed to providing housing to all students.
“If you want to live on campus, we’re going to find you a bed on campus. That’s our commitment,” Riel said “It may not be at the location you want to be, but we’re going to find a bed for you.”
Senator and Rules Committee Chair Abraham Budson-McQuilken said it was “wonderful” of the BU Project Management team to attend the meeting and inform students of the renovation timeline.
“It shows real initiative and willingness to reach out on their part,” Budson-McQuilken said. “They’ve done a good job putting their information online, but they could perhaps do a better job reaching students.”
StuGov also approved funds for three student organizations.
StuGov approved Senate Resolution 032, which provided $300 in funding to the BU Society For Biomaterials. The funds allow the group to host a symposium highlighting biomaterials research at BU.
Junior Himagowri Prasad, president and co-founder of BU SFB, said hosting the symposium in April is a “trial run” that if successful, could allow BU to host the national conference next year.
“[The funding] is gonna help a lot because we’ll have representatives from the national organization coming to our event, and they’ll be able to see our org,” Prasad said.
Junior and BU SFB Co-Founder and Vice President Leo Boisvert said this symposium will help establish BU as a top research institution.
“I would say we are like MIT and Harvard,” Boisvert said. “This event is really meant to put us on the map.”
StuGov also approved Senate Resolution 033, which allocated $400 of funding to the College of Fine Arts StuGov to create merchandise for CFA students.
CFA StuGov Executive Vice President Megan Sharon said the merchandise will help promote “pride and spirit, which tends to be pretty low in CFA because of the way it’s structured.”
Additionally, StuGov approved Senate Resolution 034, which will provide $608.80 to the BU Allegrettos acapella group to cover unpaid expenses from the semester.
“We rely on funding from SAO and from [StuGov] to keep us going and keep people singing,” Allegrettos member River Peterson said.
Allegrettos member Kathryn Jordan said the group received no funding from the Allocations Board for the spring 2025 semester because the former treasurer submitted the Allegrettos’ funding request past the deadline.
The last resolution approved by StuGov was Senate Resolution 035, which provided $675 in funding to the North African Student Organization to allow the group to host a soccer tournament in partnership with the Elite Footballers Tournament, a nonprofit that raises money to reduce the pay-to-play gap for children in the U.S.
Senior Treasurer Bashir Khalil said the tournament’s goal is to support North African kids in the U.S. who cannot afford to play soccer.
“It costs a lot of money to play these sports, and a lot of people aren’t given the opportunity to do that,” Khalil said. “The main goal of the tournament is to raise money to help young North Africans that don’t have enough money play the game of soccer.”
The initial amount requested was $1,090, but StuGov passed an amendment to reduce the amount to $675.
Budson said funding decisions have been particularly difficult to make this year.
“The Allocations Board has run out of money quickly,” Budson said. “It’s always hard to say no to students … so I think we do our best to make sure it’s reasonable and give money to the clubs and demonstrate a sincere effort to raise their own money.”
