2020 Annual Report
The State of BUA
Student Council’s Annual Report
May 2020
President, Lizi Zhang
Vice President, Vibhav Kumar
Treasurer, Rachel Wang
Secretary, Nicket Mauskar
A Note from the Student Council President
Dear BUA,
First of all, I would like to thank everyone for your support, and for giving us the privilege and opportunity to have a part in shaping BUA’s amazing community. Our work could not have been done, and would mean nothing, without you.
In the beginning of this school year, on top of our usual duties, the officers set an overarching goal for the Student Council to increase transparency and incorporate more feedback from the student body into our projects. In an effort to do so, we placed more emphasis on feedback from surveys when planning events, invited members of the greater student body to join meetings, and organized various outreach efforts such as class meeting town halls and the introduction of this annual report.
As we transitioned student council online after spring break, the focus shifted towards bringing the school together virtually and preserving our sense of community during this uncertain time. Throughout this change, I was moved time and again by the love for our community and the effort that students, teachers, and staff all put in to maintain it. I feel this is what makes BUA special and what makes all of us on the Student Council love our job.
Over the past few weeks, the Student Council has been reflecting on all the amazing and hard work we have done this year and I am excited to share a sort of “State of the Union” update with all of you. I hope this report can give you a glimpse into what we have been working on and hope to accomplish in the future. And as always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please let us know. I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy, and I look forward to when we will see each other in person again soon.
Please enjoy this, “State of BUA”, end-of-year report.
Sincerely,
Lizi Zhang
BUA Student Council President, 2019-2020
Policy Committee
Chaired by Phevos Paschilidis
The Policy Committee began a busy year by discussing possible changes to the class meeting schedule and content, the advisory schedule, and the peer advising program. We passed along these suggestions to the administration and they discussed advisory/class meeting schedule changes with the faculty and decided to make some adjustments, TBA. Around the same time, the policy committee requested an increase in the frequency of open-lunches for sophomores to happen every Friday. This request was denied due to concerns that Friday is already somewhat disruptive due to the afternoon activity block. As a compromise, the administration suggested that if the problems associated with the Friday academic/activity block were resolved, they would consider increasing the frequencies of open lunches.
Upon receiving this feedback, the Policy Committee took a different route and instead came up with three possible solutions to attempt to resolve the concerns related to the Friday academic/activity block: (1) Altering the restrictions of Activity Block to approve more leisure clubs, (2) swapping the P.E. and activity block times, or (3) introducing an early release at 2p on Fridays. After reaching out to Dr. White and Mr. Stone to ensure the feasibility of these options, the Policy Committee then surveyed a dozen faculty members and engaged many members of the student body in in-person conversations followed by a student survey. Based on feedback, the Policy Committee focused on writing a proposal for an early release on Friday afternoons. Over the course of the next three months, the Policy Committee wrote a proposal, shared it with Dr. White and the admin team for initial feedback, made some edits, and have now submitted it to the faculty to review ahead of a virtual faculty meeting for a final recommendation!
The policy committee kept busy as we waited for initial feedback by analyzing internal student council policies related to enhancing the role of Vice President, changing the structure of general meetings to make them more efficient and discussion-based, and to revise the internal election process for a virtual format. Most recently, we reached out to Ms. Meyer (Associate Director of Institutional Advancement for Marketing and Communications) to discuss posting-power guidelines for student council members for the *new* BUA Student Council Instagram account (@bua_stuco). We have been tasked with writing a user-policy for BUA-related social media accounts.
Resources Committee
Chaired by Peter Glavas
This year in resources we discussed long-standing problems from past years. This fall, we introduced the book swap program where upperclassmen can donate books to the student council library, and other students can borrow them for the year. We are excited to keep this program going and are actively discussing how we might collect borrowed books from this year even though we are remote for the rest of the spring semester. In the fall semester, we installed the charging station in the computer lab so that students can charge their phones during the school day, and we continue to keep the bathroom baskets well-stocked!
Just before spring break, the resources committee completed a proposal requesting the addition of a student-athlete academic block option in place of P.E. on Wednesdays. The goal of the proposal is to provide extra time in the school day for athletes to complete schoolwork during sports seasons when most of their afternoons are booked with practices and games. Going forward, the resources committee will focus on making adjustments to the book swap program and expand the library of books for more students to access.
Public Relations Committee
Chaired by Shizhong Xu
At the start of this year, the Ad Hoc committee changed its name to Public Relations to better fit the description of its growing responsibilities. The first step PR took to fit this title was to expand announcements to a digital platform. Through the use of a website called canva, the committee created advertisements digitally to share around the school, on the TV in the lobby, and now on Instagram. Additionally, the PR committee attempted to save the microwave and add a hot water machine to student resources. Although the outcome was not what we hoped for, the fire safety concerns and impossible alternative locations led to the removal of the microwave. We hope to find a way to bring it back next year.
In previous years, selling roses for Valentine’s Day was managed by events; PR took that over this year since it better fits our committee name and frees up time for the events committee to focus on planning for semi-formal. The PR committee’s primary goal for next year is to maintain the *new* student council Instagram account (@bua_stuco) and further the overarching goal of student council: to better connect the BUA community!
Events Committee
Chaired by Kieran Barrett
This year, as we do each year, the Events Committee began planning its first event, Fall Festival. Considering the feedback we gathered last year, we enacted several changes including specifically requesting DJ Jose to host the dance. We also retained your favorite aspects of the event such as the bouncy house and poster-making station. In the spring, we consulted feedback on how to improve the semi-formal dance. We adjusted the amount and type of drinks and refreshments according to your feedback, invited DJ Jose back, and changed the decorations to incorporate more lights than we had in previous years. At the end of the month we helped to facilitate a student-faculty basketball game that doubled as a charity fundraiser, a tradition started last year by Alexis Puthussery. The event benefited the New South Wales Fire Service and their attempts to fight the fires in Australia. It also sparked the addition of an internal student council role, the charity events officer, which we hope to build upon next year.
Since going remote, the events committee has begun offering virtual events for students. The first was a Trivia Night on Zoom that pulled 70+ participants! We have other virtual events in the works, including an open mic night. Finally, although we will be unable to hold Field Day this year, we gathered lots of data from students, faculty, staff, and alumni that will allow us to improve the event and ensure it’s longevity. See the report from Benista, below. Thank you all for attending these events over the past year and I hope you continue to be active members of the school community!
Field Day; Revisited.
Benista Owusu-Amo
After two years of hosting a field day at BUA, student council wanted to revisit the goal of this all-school event and ensure it is a positive addition to BUA’s beloved traditions.
Field Day serves as a fun and competitive way for students to relieve stress and “enjoy each other’s company in a non-academic setting” (Alexis ‘20) at a time when the workload is heavy and final exam prep is about to start. Because of scheduling, there is not a lot of interaction between upperclassmen and underclassmen. In a survey performed by BUA’s Scarlet Letter, it was found that 12% of freshmen know more than 10 seniors and 33% of seniors know more than 10 freshmen by name. Field Day “bridges the gap between upper and lower classmen” (Cassandra ‘22) and “allows us to bond with people who we never thought we’d have the opportunity to bond with” (Rohan ‘21). It allows students to make memories together (Mell ‘22) and encourages team spirit, work, and bonding (Ava ‘21).
Another benefit of having a tighter-knit community as BUA would be that students would associate with more people who do not share similar life experiences, and, in the process, be opened up to different perspectives (Joie ‘23, The Scarlet Letter). Additionally, “the competition element makes it so much more fun” (Kealan ‘21). Not only do students learn more about their classmates, but they also learn about their teachers. Tanay ‘22 shared that he enjoyed talking about and playing soccer with Mr. Divac during field day. The same pleasures are enjoyed by teachers. Mr. Dent shared that he enjoyed “working together with a group of students to achieve a goal and do something non-academic.” He connects field day to the “day of service in which [students and faculty] work together to do something beneficial”.
Additionally, having a day, or even a part of a day devoted to exercise and school bonding promotes the idea that BUA cares about more than just academics, and that student vitality is a priority (Amelia ‘23). Field day “has a similar fun vibe to Lock-In and Fall-Fast but is available to more of the student body because of the timing” (Micheala ‘19). Most schools have pep rallies and other events designated to the growth of school spirit, and similarly, BUA’s field day is important because it allows the students to form a real community. In a poll made by student council asking students to rate how much they enjoyed activities like dodgeball and capture the flag, 73.45% of the students indicated that they enjoyed these activities. Field day was initially created to provide an opportunity to improve school spirit as well as the bonds between upper and underclassmen, and these goals have been met. We are excited to solidify field day as an enduring BUA tradition.