The Current State of the Student Government
BY GEORGE JI '23
Ask any student what AB’s Student Council has done for them, and you’ll be hard pressed to find a specific answer. The purpose of student government is to represent the students' interests. In its first line, their official constitution states that the Council seeks to ”voice student opinions about school policies.”
So, how well has the Student Council done its job?
In the past year, six policies have been introduced to the council floor. Of those proposed, only three passed. Four were proposed by just one member. On average, the Student Council produces one piece of new legislation every two months. For a group of around fifteen members, this is unacceptable. Suffice to say, the Student Council has not adequately represented students and their voices.
When asked about this, class representative Eric Yao stated that “[the Student Council] has failed to live up to its promise, because currently everything we're doing is organizing events and doing fundraisers.”
Rather than making proposals to improve the school, the Student Council has taken up the responsibility of planning and organizing school wide events, a responsibility usually dedicated to the Class Leaders, who now have nothing to do. The student government is not only unproductive, but somewhat dysfunctional as well.
The students on the Council have kept things this way not out of any sort of ignorance, but due to unwillingness to work for change. It all starts during the election. People only really care about the Student Council during election season, and they forget about it as soon as soon as it's over. This allows the candidates to leave their campaign promises untouched with absolutely no consequences. Some candidates don’t make any commitment to improving the school at all, instead banking on their personality and humor to garner votes. As a result, most of the elected representatives lack ambition and purpose, leaving the few motivated members to deal with another setback: the school’s administration.
As previously mentioned, the Student Council produced just six policies in the last year. Many proposals didn’t pass after not receiving enough votes, while others were rejected by the school. The school administration reserves the right to veto any policies deemed impractical, so they can easily strike down the few proposals that do make it to the Council floor. Clearly, the school severely restricts what the Council can or cannot do. This is perfectly normal, as it would be unreasonable to let the students vote for, say, an Xbox in West Commons or nap time in lieu of advisory. However, this becomes an issue when proposals that directly benefit the students are swept aside. This happened to Eric Yao just last year. In a recent interview, he recalled: “I was the first and only representative to protect students' lives back in February. I proposed a mandatory quarantine for students whose direct family member[s] [had] visited China in like the past month back in February, which is around the time where Trump propose[d] travel restrictions. But, the school told me I couldn't do that.”
Now it's clear the proposal would not have changed much as the first case in Acton was not reported until March. But as coronavirus fears began to rise, administration vetoed a policy addressing such concerns for seemingly no reason. While the students on the council make no effort to work for change, the school is less than helpful in remedying this. Ideally, students should be encouraged to make proposals, but as the council continues to plan student events and activities, it is painfully obvious that neither the school nor the students care to work towards this.
Further, because the Student Council wields so little power, those who would advocate for change are discouraged to do so. Eric went on to say, “If the Student Council does not hold the power to address the issues in our school or implement major policies, then its members will stop trying to fight for the students and will plan class activities instead.”
The school does not incentivize candidates to make proposals or represent students. In fact, they actively discourage it. By rejecting policies that actually affect students, it shows members that their positions don’t mean much. The majority of students who run for student government offices do so with no intention of representing students. All this culminates in a Student Council that does nothing, class leaders with nothing to do, an administration uninterested in student representation, and finally, a student populace that doesn’t care.
So, how well has the Student Council done its job?
In the past year, six policies have been introduced to the council floor. Of those proposed, only three passed. Four were proposed by just one member. On average, the Student Council produces one piece of new legislation every two months. For a group of around fifteen members, this is unacceptable. Suffice to say, the Student Council has not adequately represented students and their voices.
When asked about this, class representative Eric Yao stated that “[the Student Council] has failed to live up to its promise, because currently everything we're doing is organizing events and doing fundraisers.”
Rather than making proposals to improve the school, the Student Council has taken up the responsibility of planning and organizing school wide events, a responsibility usually dedicated to the Class Leaders, who now have nothing to do. The student government is not only unproductive, but somewhat dysfunctional as well.
The students on the Council have kept things this way not out of any sort of ignorance, but due to unwillingness to work for change. It all starts during the election. People only really care about the Student Council during election season, and they forget about it as soon as soon as it's over. This allows the candidates to leave their campaign promises untouched with absolutely no consequences. Some candidates don’t make any commitment to improving the school at all, instead banking on their personality and humor to garner votes. As a result, most of the elected representatives lack ambition and purpose, leaving the few motivated members to deal with another setback: the school’s administration.
As previously mentioned, the Student Council produced just six policies in the last year. Many proposals didn’t pass after not receiving enough votes, while others were rejected by the school. The school administration reserves the right to veto any policies deemed impractical, so they can easily strike down the few proposals that do make it to the Council floor. Clearly, the school severely restricts what the Council can or cannot do. This is perfectly normal, as it would be unreasonable to let the students vote for, say, an Xbox in West Commons or nap time in lieu of advisory. However, this becomes an issue when proposals that directly benefit the students are swept aside. This happened to Eric Yao just last year. In a recent interview, he recalled: “I was the first and only representative to protect students' lives back in February. I proposed a mandatory quarantine for students whose direct family member[s] [had] visited China in like the past month back in February, which is around the time where Trump propose[d] travel restrictions. But, the school told me I couldn't do that.”
Now it's clear the proposal would not have changed much as the first case in Acton was not reported until March. But as coronavirus fears began to rise, administration vetoed a policy addressing such concerns for seemingly no reason. While the students on the council make no effort to work for change, the school is less than helpful in remedying this. Ideally, students should be encouraged to make proposals, but as the council continues to plan student events and activities, it is painfully obvious that neither the school nor the students care to work towards this.
Further, because the Student Council wields so little power, those who would advocate for change are discouraged to do so. Eric went on to say, “If the Student Council does not hold the power to address the issues in our school or implement major policies, then its members will stop trying to fight for the students and will plan class activities instead.”
The school does not incentivize candidates to make proposals or represent students. In fact, they actively discourage it. By rejecting policies that actually affect students, it shows members that their positions don’t mean much. The majority of students who run for student government offices do so with no intention of representing students. All this culminates in a Student Council that does nothing, class leaders with nothing to do, an administration uninterested in student representation, and finally, a student populace that doesn’t care.
