A new year brings in new SGA members
and new SGA members bring new
ideas and plans for the next year at Bakersfield
College.
Kristi Newsom, the new SGA president,
said she is “excited” for the plans
that SGA will be implementing this year.
“We have a lot of great things planned .
and a lot of activities for the students,”
she said.
A few of these plans include the BC
2009 homecoming. Newsom said that
the theme, “Go Big Red,” will be taking
the first BC colors of maroon, black and
white and using them in a “much more
alumni-based homecoming.”
“This is going to be a legendary homecoming,”
she said.
The homecoming shirts are going to
be maroon with a black renegade to represent
BC’s past.
The SGA chief of staff, Shahzeb
Shaeen, said that SGA’s reasons for
choosing this theme for homecoming is
that “Bakersfield College has a very vibrant
history. There is memorabilia from
every decade. That’s a lot of history.”
Shaeen said SGA wants to inform
students what a great community college
BC is. “We want this homecoming
to completely rock the students’ socks
off. It’ll be completely student orientated
and all about BC pride. Students should
know what a great school BC is and how
many more options we have than other
colleges.”
The first week of school SGA had
their “welcome week” and handed out
free water bottles and notebooks. Shaeen
said there was a great turnout, and people
were pleasantly surprised.
“When students asked who the stuff
was for, and we would say, ‘For you
guys,’ they were shocked and very happy.”
One thing that Newsom said that she
would like to do differently than last year
is have a more open-door policy to students.
“I want people to come into my
office and tell me what they would like
to see done.”
According to Newsom, SGA’s largest
focus this year is more student involvement.
Every Tuesday will be “cookiefor-
your-thoughts” day.
“More than anything, we want to know
what the students want. So we will have
officers around campus asking students
what they think we should be doing, and
for their response, they will get a coupon
for a free cookie in the cafeteria,” she
said.
Shaeen said that he feels “students
aren’t aware we’re here for them, and
that’s a problem because they have a
right to know what we’re doing with
their finances. We encourage students to
come to our meetings; they aren’t closed
sessions. We want to know what the students
want.
“SGA is here for the sole benefit of
the students. We want to get connected
to them. If they have any problem, question,
comment or concern, we encourage
students to come in anytime,” he said.