Student Council

Ever since I entered the high school I have been puzzled by the Student Council. I never really understood what purpose it served, and now as a senior I am equally confused. It seems that after being excused from class once every Friday and rearranging the library furniture, they just seem to talk about nothing. It is true that programs such as March Intensive have been passed by the council, but I fail to see why such a large group of students needed to be involved. My objection in short is simple: there are a great number of students on the Student Council that are there simply to put another item on their college transcript, and it seems to me that every decision council has made in my high school career could have been made by a panel of teachers and a group of invested students.

The student council elections are for the most part, a complete joke. There have been some in the past who have tried to tell me that it is not a popularity contest, but I cannot understand where they are coming from. I spoke with a council official about the subject, and he/she did not deny this, but told me it was then my responsibility, as a member of this democratic society, to move the student body away from the attitude of the popularity contest to a more of a democratic election. Something tells me my efforts would be in vain.

This issue is an illustration of the bigger picture of the student body that seems to escape some members of the student council. The fact is, the students do not care. Though the enormous number of posts on the opinion board beg to differ, it seems that students are just not involved and do not care to change that. I sincerely doubt that the average high school student can name something other than March Intensive that council has accomplished in the past four years. The system is clearly not democratic if only a handful of students actually care about the decisions that affect the school. With no real support from the student body, there seems to be no reason for the student council to remain as large or as powerful as it is.

I believe that Student Council should be reduced in size and authority, and that issues should be dealt with by teachers and students that actually care. I strongly feel that elections should be made by students but nominations should be made by faculty. It is too easy now for a cool enough kid who wants another thing to put on their transcript to get onto council and be totally detached from any meaningful issues at hand. That's not my ideal for a governing body.