BCSA Finding Footing This Semester

BCSA Tries to Take Root while Also Planning for the Future

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Mackenzie Hammack

Student Life is working with BCSA to help the association take root on campus. This semester, goals include filling committee chair positions, solidifying club representative positions and preparing to select a new chair and co-chair.

Mackenzie Hammack, Staff Writer

Bridgewater, Va.- The Bridgewater College Student Association is still working on filling committee chair positions and solidifying club representatives, while also focusing on planning for the future of the association.

BCSA was formed last academic year as a replacement for the Student Senate. Their responsibilities include hearing student concerns and distributing funding for clubs.

“I know last semester we weren’t able to do as much as we thought we were going to be able to do because of certain events that occurred,” said senior and BCSA chair Dolan Nethercutt. “I’m hoping that BCSA doesn’t turn out to be ineffective. It’s kind of hard to gauge that right now because we’re not at a point where we’re fully set up.”

BCSA consists of a chair, co-chair, five committee chairs representing various areas of campus and a representative from each club. 

Applications for the five committee chair positions closed in early October, and BCSA hopes to announce who will fill those positions within the next few weeks.

“I believe we’re sitting at a good seven or eight people interested,” said BSCA co-chair and senior Amere Langley. “We’re working to communicate with them in terms of scheduling for interviews, and then moving forward, a process with in-person interviews with ourselves and also the advisors, then with appointing people in these positions as well.”

While BCSA is trying to solidify who will hold the committee chair positions and what exactly the responsibility of holding these positions will look like, the association is also trying to plan for the future.

This is the last semester Nethercutt and Langley will be serving as chair and co-chair as the positions are held from January to December each year with late November and early December serving as a transition period for the positions. 

“We’re in the process, currently, of getting [chair and co-chair] applications open, and they should be going live here within the next couple of weeks,” said Coordinator of Student Engagement and Leadership Sam Huyard. “Ideally, if the timeline is perfect, we’d like to be able to announce the new chair and co-chair at the November town hall, but that also depends on how many students apply. Depending on the applicants that apply, we may extend that application later and delay the start date a little bit.”

While the committee chair applications are being processed and the chair and co-chair applications are being opened, BCSA is also working to further their work with clubs and hearing student concerns through their town halls.

“Last town hall we probably had about 10 to 15 people, which we’re hoping to get more,” said Nethercutt. “Hopefully, in the future, we get all the club representatives there, and then we might have closer to 50 people.”

Students are able to communicate with BCSA by attending town halls, meeting with the chair and co-chair, or reaching out to [email protected]. Additionally, after each town hall meeting, the minutes will be emailed to students. BCSA is also hoping to have a place on MyBC for students to receive updates.