The Monday after Convocation, 14 students and two faculty members returned to the second floor of Humanities building, per usual. The Convocation speech of Student Council President Cecelia Zhou ’17, which stressed the importance of compassion, unity, and proactivity, resonated throughout the room as the first meeting of the 2016-2017 Student Council kicked into high gear, members feverishly discussing their plans for the coming months. Here are some of them:
Revisions to Sophomore Seminar Curriculum
The Student Council has evaluated the effectiveness of the current Sophomore Seminar curriculum, asking students and alumni about their thoughts this past spring term.
Day student representative Jack Hodgson ’16 recently submitted a proposal to reform the Sophomore Seminar curriculum. He commented, “A lot of students felt that many pertinent issues were not being properly addressed in their Sophomore Seminar classes — and that wasn’t due to poor teaching, but more due to the lack of resources and not being able to include all the material into the given class time.”
Hodgson’s proposal includes expanding Sophomore Seminar into a course that is required and covers different materials for freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior students; changing it from a class that meets once a week for two terms to a full-sized course that would meet for a single term; having more involvement from various student groups; and trying to incorporate a more interactive teaching approach, especially in regards to teaching students how to find relevant information for whatever issues they are dealing with.
Sixth form representative Larisa Owusu ’16 observed, “Although it has its good parts, the current curriculum doesn’t go in-depth as much as it could or should. I remember in the beginning of the course, we focused a lot on health and developing good eating and sleeping habits. I definitely think that these topics are extremely important, but I don’t think we went into more in-depth conversations such as how to facilitate intimate relationships on campus, or, when we did talk about sex, talk about things like consent — what that means and looks like.”
Fourth form president Shade Mazer ’19 added, “I also feel that we should extend the breadth of the topics covered, in addition to the depth. Most of the people in my grade know of the Sophomore Seminar class just as this mandatory class that’s mostly ineffective and useless. Although I do understand that learning about sex and drugs from early on is extremely important, it seems to me that graduating Choate without knowing basic life skills, such as knowing how to pay your taxes, is a little strange.”
School-wide Lip Dub
Challenge
Sometime during this fall term, most likely in lieu of a school or form meeting, students will gather to help create a school-wide Lip Dub, a type of music video where participants lip-sync to a song while performing a choreographed routine.
With the help of a cameraman, a Steadicam will follow a path that starts from Archbold and meanders through the Lanphier Center, the Science Center Bridge, the Paul Mellon Arts Center (PMAC), and the Great Lawn. Students and faculty will gather along the path in various groups — sports teams, arts ensembles, clubs, and more — all while lip-syncing to “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten.
This idea was presented to the Council last year by Zhou, who watched a similar video made by students in Lakewood High School, NJ. She explained, “When I watched their video for the first time, it really just amazed me how well thought-out the video was. I’m really happy that we have the opportunity to make this video, and I think it’s doubly impactful that this sort of uniting, school-spiriting event is happening at a time when exactly those things are needed the most.” She added, “I genuinely believe that beyond our resources, programs, and everything else that Choate has to offer, it is our community that is the most valuable part of the education we receive here. And I think that showcasing this vibrant life and the amazing people who study here and live here is a very significant and unifying thing. And I think that being able to stand beside your friends, and creating something as fun and silly this and putting it out in the world — it’s just a great spirit booster.”
Sixth form president Amir Idris ’17 commented, “All the information we could give you about our school in a pamphlet, we can just tell you by showing actual student faces. Each student group and organization is going to be able to choose their own way of showing who they are and what they’re all about. I think this video will be a very genuine way of showing what the Choate community really looks like.”
However, not all Council members approved of this initiative. Sixth form representative Leland Ben ’17 commented, “I think the Student Council probably has better things to do. Sure, it’d be fun, but then you have to look at priorities. The Lip Dub challenge is just a logistical nightmare that the Council really shouldn’t be taking on.”
Fifth form representative Katherine Burgstahler ’18, one of the main organizers of this event, described some of the logistical difficulties that the Council will have to resolve. “Once we modify the path of the video to fit the exact song length, we’re going to need an estimate of how many groups are signing up to be in it. This is going to be a little hard to coordinate, just because there are so many Choate students who are involved in everything. I expect those people will just have to pick several groups that they can get to in the time of the Lip Dub, or just choose one to be in. But we’ll have to send out a survey soon to find out exactly how the groups will be organized and ensure that everyone feels represented.”
Creation of Public Relations Subcommittee
Transparency, or lack thereof, was the buzzword of this past Student Body President and Vice President election. Fifth form representative Mpilo Norris ’18 said, “A lot of people still feel like they don’t know what we’re doing. We made the Student Council website last year, but the biggest problem with that was accessibility — you couldn’t get to our website right from the home screen, a technical problem we couldn’t solve.”
Last spring, in response to concerns about the lack of communication between the Council and its constituents, Zhou created the Public Relations subcommittee, a group consisting of Ben, Norris, sixth form representative Jack Hutchinson ’17, and fifth form president Noah Hermes De Boor ’18.
One of the subcommittee’s first initiatives was creating the official Student Council Facebook page, which is now accessible to everyone. Ben commented, “All of our announcement-type posts that we normally put on the website, like our most recent notes and meeting agendas, will now be posted on our Facebook page. I think Facebook will be a great medium for this role since many people at Choate use Facebook on a regular basis, and non-Facebook users can access the page as well.”
Norris added, “However, we’re not getting rid of the website — there’s still a purpose to it. It’s more of an archival unit. We’ll put the most updated version of our Constitution, all of our notes, an FAQ page, and a profile of each of the Council members on the website. I think the combination of these two mediums will be a better way of reaching out to our constituents.”
Norris also noted the additional benefit of establishing the Facebook page. “It’s interesting because when you have the Facebook page for many people to see, you now have mechanisms where you can show what you’ve done so far and what you want to do in the future. I think it’ll push people to get more things done.”
Addressing Efficiency of the Council
Interestingly, when asked how the Student Council can improve, all of the council’s members interviewed said: the efficiency of their meetings and discussions.
Student Council Vice President Namsai Sethpornpong ’17 said, “Sometimes I notice that our discussions are dominated only by a certain few; we don’t leave a lot of room for other people to talk. Some of us are unwilling to let go of ideas for the benefit of the conversation.”
Owusu added, “I think that we sometimes tend to get caught up in very, very small details that always hinder us from moving on. I think that we just need to get better at speaking concisely and learning how to compromise — figuring out what’s best for everybody and what’s most convenient and efficient.”
Ben pointed out his frustration about the pace of the meetings. “We need to clear out our agendas and just get more things happening, so that our discussions don’t drone on about something that’s insignificant.”
Zhou commented, “I think that historically, the Council has tended to get caught up in internal problems — insignificant, logistical things, which are a kind of a given for any bureaucratic organization. My goal is to try to maximize the time that we spend on things that actually have effect on the student body at large.”
