Student government has always been a way for students to come together and make decisions for their class, rather than staff and administration having the final say on everything. During the 2023-2024 school year, the B-CC administration decided to make cuts to the number of Student Government positions, taking away roles from students who were interested in continuing or pursuing those positions. In past years, there were ten positions available on SGA for each class. Now only seven students from each grade are able to serve in Student Government.
These SGA cuts have affected students personally. Abby Meers, a junior, could not participate in the 2024-2025 Student Government due to the cuts. As Abby put it, “SGA connected me to a school event I wouldn’t have otherwise been a part of. Now that I’m not in SGA, I don’t feel as knowledgeable about or connected to those events.” For students like Abby, playing a role on SGA was their only access point to many opportunities and their main way to stay informed. For a school whose motto is “Learn, Think, Serve, Be Responsible,” many find the SGA cuts hypocritical.
So why did these positions get cut in the first place? We asked Ms. Fishel, the school-wide SGA advisor. Ms. Fishel responded by bringing up that she and the other advisors “noticed that it was difficult to have productive discussions and take action with so many people on board.” In her telling, the decision was based largely on efficiency; when it comes to school decisions, there may be such a thing as too many chefs in the proverbial kitchen. Ms. Fishel added that B-CC “is still one of the largest (if not the largest) SGA in the country.” That may well be the case — though it is difficult to confirm. However, despite its size, the B-CC SGA has worked well for our school. It has helped us create opportunities like having bake sales at football and basketball games, homecoming t-shirts and so much more.
Efficiency is important, but it can come at too high a cost; not only are these role cuts shutting out students who would otherwise be engaged and supportive of their school community, but they are also devaluing the role of SGA to the larger student body. Abby Meers argues that people are starting to believe that “SGA has decreased in value just because everyone is working on the same things together and no one is specializing in specific roles, whereas before there were a bunch of different roles with a bunch of diverse ideas.” SGA is not only losing people but they are also losing value in attention to detail without people specializing in certain roles. Having more specific roles to fit the need for student government was crucial for the process of making sure things got done effectively and dilligently.
Having these different roles in student government allows people to be involved with their community and help their school become more involved with different kinds of students to plan events that wouldn’t be possible without many different ideas from many different people. Involvement with student government makes students them feel closer to their school and create connections they wouldn’t have otherwise had.