Student Advocacy Union
By the students, for the students.
The Student Advocacy Union (SAU) is a volunteer student organization at Bergen County Academies. We are dedicated to fostering a transparent and active connection between students, Student Council, faculty, the administration, and the Board of Education.We were created to help students advocate for and see addressed the issues that matter most to them, and show our student body that anyone can get involved with advocacy.We are 100% student-run, independent from faculty and administration.
Leadership
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Baz Cho | President |
| Mark Suppiah | Vice President |
| Asha Patel | Vice President |
Historical Leadership
2021–2022
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Edward Welch Morgan | President |
| Elizabeth Rutenberg | Vice President |
| Alissa Sherbatov | Director of Technology & Public Relations |
| Gavin Dyan | Secretary |
| Erez Israeli Miller | Class of 2022 Liaison |
| Baz Cho | Class of 2023 Liaison |
| Christine Koushagjian | Class of 2024 Liaison |
| Asha Patel | Class of 2025 Liaison |
FoundersEdward Welch Morgan, Elizabeth Rutenberg, Alissa Sherbatov
Active Projects
Mental Health
After "wellness" assemblies that were not only dismissive but damaging, we launched an initiative to make substantive changes to how BCA deals with mental health. We created a survey allowing students to share their mental health experiences, which got over 275 responses. Using the responses from this survey and other input we've received, we have crafted a proposal to address the stressors that students face. We are currently meeting with administration and faculty to get the measures outlined in our proposal implemented. View our proposal at bit.ly/bcamentalhealth.
Disorientation Guide
Official orientation does not tell you all that you need to know, so we made The Disorientation Guide. While official orientation might educate you on all the opportunities of our school, it doesn’t tell you how to navigate them. There you’ll find letters written by juniors and seniors with advice for underclassmen. Furthermore, there are health resources, covering topics inadequately covered in health classes. Additionally, we’ve compiled a list of resources for homework help, finding books and research papers, guidance department help, and more. Lastly, you’ll find a brief history of BCA. The guide can be found here.
Repealing PowerSchool Restrictions (the second time)
In January 2022, the Board of Education announced that students would be blocked from viewing PowerSchool from 6 AM to 6 PM, while parents would be blocked from 2 PM to 6 PM. Not only was this decision made without student input (despite the Board claiming the opposite), a similar policy created 2 years ago was universally condemned by students, including the SAU (see below). Sign our petition to abolish this restriction at bit.ly/BCTSfreePS.
Past Projects
2019-2020 School Year
Opposition to ID Card Wearing
Though a policy requiring ID cards to be worn during the school day had been in the student handbook for years, it previously hadn't been enforced. Following a school shooting scare in May 2019, the policy was reinforced in the 2019-2020 school year with spontaneous mass ID checks and detentions for noncompliers. Despite student support demonstrated by our petition, this initiative unfortunately had to be abandoned in order to refocus on combating the PowerSchool restrictions.
2019-2020 School Year
Repealing PowerSchool Restrictions (the first time)
We attended Board of Education meetings and successfully advocated to the school administration and the BoE to provide students in the district with easier access to their grades.
2020-2021 School Year
Schedules During the Pandemic
As schedules were fluid during the COVID-19 lockdown, many changes were extremely unpopular among students. We created a survey regarding the minimum day schedule and office hours, which amassed over 400 responses, that we presented to Student Council and administration.
Beautification
The everyday environment of the school is highly influential in student mental health. Stemming from our mental health initiative, the Beautification project is driven by this principle. A group will be organized to design and paint murals around the school, as well as push for other initiatives to make the school more inviting. This is now run by the Wellness Club.
Cybersecurity
Students can't even go a week without receiving a wave of malware in their inbox. This team will work with the Tech Department and computer science faculty to determine why our network is especially susceptible to these emails, and how to prevent future instances of them. This will now be handled through the feedback program (see Mental Health proposal).
Repairs
While some areas of the school are newly renovated, others are in extremely poor condition. We are working on developing an initiative to get a multitude of things to return to usable condition around the school. This includes the unrenovated bathrooms, various lights, and more. This will now be handled through the feedback program (see Mental Health proposal).
Contact us
We are always open to questions and concerns about any of our work.Similarly, if you are interested in joining the SAU, we would love to have you!