The Bob Jones University student body legislature has added five new members to its delegation and is optimistic about the new members’ future contributions to the politics of South Carolina.

​Randy Page, BJU’s chief of staff, emphasizes the diversity of perspectives on the new delegation. This spring brought five new members, most of whom are freshman, but some are sophomores. “By bringing in students at different academic classifications and different programs of study, our delegation is well-balanced and better able to respond to legislation because of a broader focus,” he said.

​Page emphasizes that the diversity of majors makes BJU unique.

​“Many delegations may only have political science or sociology majors,” Page said. “The BJU delegation has health science, education, accounting, business administration and other majors represented.”

​Jonathan Du Fault, a junior healthcare administration major and the chair of the student body legislature, feels optimistic about the direction of the delegation with the new team members. “We’ve seen a lot of strong skills coming from them,” he said. “They’ve written five really good bills. They all are very friendly and outgoing, so they’ll be really good at connecting with other delegates as well when we go to session. I’m really excited about where the organization is going as a whole, especially with these five new members.”

​Du Fault believes that the legislation represents a chance for BJU students to get involved in South Carolina government. Each of the 11 colleges in the South Carolina Student Legislature appoints representatives to write bills, which are voted on mainly during the fall session by the student representatives from each college across the state. The bills that are passed are sent to the governor of the state of South Carolina. If signed by the governor, they can be adopted by a South Carolina state representative or senator to be voted into law.

​Du Fault emphasizes that BJU students have seen a lot of success in moving forward state-level legislation. Du Fault was the author of a bill that passed in 2021 to allow for the open carry of handguns in the state.

​Hart Zakaria, a junior healthcare administration major and the speaker pro tempore of the student body legislature, believes that BJU stands out from the other delegations in the state. “The other colleges learn how to write bills in the classes that they’re taking because most people are political science majors, and they write the bills with not much outside help, and a lot of times the bills are not checked by many other people,” he said. “They’re not formatted properly.”

​“Here at Bob Jones, we use a template from the beginning,” Zakaria said. “You’re [constantly] working with someone, and all the way through you have weekly checkups on your bill. We break it down in week-by-week chunks, and they’re really easy chunks. But they help you really perfect every aspect of the bill so that you bring the best thing forward. It kind of shows because our bills are usually the most well–thought–out or the most well–organized compared to a lot of the other bills out there.”

​Page is excited about the unique potential BJU students have in being part of this organization. “My goal for student legislature is for our students to do well and to be poised and confident as they present their bills and to argue constructively for and against other bills that are presented,” he said. “As a Christian liberal arts university, it’s imperative for us to demonstrate Christ and promote a biblical worldview in our bills, our actions, and in the arguments we make for or against other bills. For many of the students, our students may be the only or one of a fewChristians that others have the chance to interact with.”