As Alessandra Veveiros was preparing to move back to campus, she was also planning the Office of Sustainability’s fall semester activities—until a week before move-in, when she learned that Boston College would be downsizing the Office of Sustainability and cutting her internship.
“I got an email just being like, ‘Hey, can you get on a call?’ so I got on the call, and I went into shock,” said Veveiros, MCAS ’27.
On Thursday, the University officially announced that it would end the Office of Sustainability’s student internship program and leave the office’s program director position vacant for the next fiscal year, citing budgetary constraints.
Since the office’s director, Bruce Dixon, BC ’20, left the University last October, Veveiros said the Office of Sustainability was almost an entirely student-run organization, a fact she said helps explain administrators’ decision to downsize it.
“It’s understandable that they’d go ‘Oh, the Office of Sustainability doesn’t have a program manager and only has interns, so okay, that’s going to be cut now,’ so I can see it from an administration perspective,” Veveiros said.
But even with a projected five percent budget cut over the next two years, Veveiros said that from an ideological standpoint, BC’s decision seems hypocritical.
“Boston College, with their overarching theme, I don’t think [the decision] necessarily aligns with what they want to teach people, and what Pope Francis stood for—what the current Pope stands for,” Veveiros said.
Terence Leahy, director of engineering and energy management, did not respond to a request for comment.
Veveiros said University administrators had left the program director position vacant since last fall and informed the student interns that they planned to keep it unfilled through the summer.
Over the summer, however, there was no formal communication until the week before move-in, according to Morgan Bleakley, a summer intern in the Office of Sustainability and MCAS ’26.
“It was definitely something that we did not anticipate, and it was something that was not communicated to us at all throughout the summer,” Bleakley said.
Although the interns received no formal indication that the University planned to end their program until late August, Bleakley said that over the summer, BC denied a request to purchase merchandise and moved the interns to a new cubicle space.
In hindsight, Bleakley said the moves signaled that BC was preparing to end the program.
“We did get a little bit of pushback over the summer, which was kind of a first red flag,” Bleakley said. “One time we tried to order new merchandise, and we were told that we should not order more merchandise because they don’t want to publicize an office that doesn’t have a program manager. But at the time, we knew that they weren’t seeking a program manager.”
Dixon said he had high expectations for the Office of Sustainability’s continued success, but they were not met.
“I knew that the next person coming in behind me was going to really be someone that was going to be successful,” Dixon said.
BC’s decision to downsize the Office of Sustainability contradicts its core values, Dixon said.
“I feel disappointed,” Dixon said. “I feel like I worked for a corporation and I graduated from a corporate university, and not a religious institution.”
Dixon criticized the University for not exploring other funding sources to maintain the Office of Sustainability’s internship program.
“If it really was truly down to dollars and cents—which I get, I understand working for them, I get how business goes—they could’ve found a way to keep that seat, and they decided not to,” Dixon said. “Now, the question to Boston College is, ‘Why?’ That’s the question that I would like for them to answer.”
In a statement posted to its website, the Office of Sustainability announced will continue to work with Facilities Management to achieve LEED Silver status or better for all newly constructed buildings. Dixon said this is likely being done primarily to comply with Boston’s Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO).
BERDO requires Boston buildings that are 20,000 square feet or larger to report annual water and energy use and comply with building emissions standards by 2025 or 2030, depending on their size. The law aims to cut the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, with owners required to pay a $234 fine for every metric ton over the emissions limit.
“So they will continue to [pursue LEED certification], even though I’m sure they are not crazy about doing it,” Dixon said.
Although the Office of Sustainability will technically remain open, it is unclear how much student-facing programming will continue—something Dixon said he worries could limit student engagement and behavioral change.
“There’s a difference between complying and actually showing and really informing and educating your campus community, as well as your students, on the importance of [BERDO and Commonwealth’s Large Building Energy Reporting policy],” Dixon said.
Veveiros hopes that while the Office of Sustainability’s programs are not running, other environmental clubs on campus—like UGBC’s Environmental Sustainability division and EcoPledge—will take on some of their planned activities and initiatives.
“We all understand, as environmental leaders on campus, that the weight of responsibility is going to be on us until the Sustainability Office is reinstated,” Veveiros said.
Elleen Kim, director of UGBC’s Environmental Sustainability division and MCAS ’26, said in a statement to The Heights that the division is working with former student interns to find ways to fill gaps in sustainability programming.
“While student government is no replacement for the office itself, it’s our job to make sure that students have the resources to learn about and get involved in sustainability, and that might look like taking on some of the work the Office of Sustainability has been doing in new ways,” Kim wrote.
The former student interns have since circulated a petition calling on the University to reinstate the Office of Sustainability.
Bleakley criticized the University’s statement for disregarding the awareness and engagement they believe is needed to foster sustainable change on campus.
“I really disagree with the statement that they put out because sustainability isn’t just about [facilities],” Bleakley said. “That’s not just having buildings that are LEED certified, but also making sure that we’re creating awareness, having initiatives for students, learning, growing—I think we’re now missing a huge part of what sustainability is.”
While Bleakley is disappointed BC shuttered the internship program for the foreseeable future, she hopes this decision will pave the way to integrate the Office of Sustainability into another entity at the University outside of facilities management.
“Despite this situation and how upset it might make me feel, I think this could be a really good opportunity to gain some traction and maybe move the Office of Sustainability elsewhere so we can really expand the office,” Bleakley said.