With the first semester under their belts, including a record-breaking homecoming dance, International Day, several grade-level events and the launch of the new cafeteria app, Student Council is gearing up for more activities and initiatives in the second half of the year. While event planning is primarily led by the Cultural Union members, all Student Council members contributed significantly to these events, limiting the amount of time that could be dedicated to bills and other initiatives.
In addition to planning events, the council spent considerable time updating the online feedback form to improve connection with the student body. Some campaign promises, such as implementing designated weeks for updating grades in Schoology, proved more difficult to execute. Despite these challenges, the council now has numerous bills in progress, including an elective bill that would allow students to suggest courses and a proposal for a vending machine with school supplies.
All-School Update
Promise: Build school spirit
This year’s Diamond Heist-themed homecoming broke the attendance record. “Students really enjoyed the surprise reveal,” All-School President Daniel Chang said. The council organized International Day held on Feb. 11, and is now organizing the Spring Fling for March 28.
Promise: Pass more bills
“The most notable bill we passed was a cafeteria food app, so now students can leave reviews and view the menu for the next month,” Daniel said. The cafeteria app was posted to each grade-level Schoology page. Bills in progress include a proposal for homework-free weekends, and the elective bill where students can suggest new courses and a vending machine with school supplies, currently under discussion with operations staff.
Promise: Designated weeks during which teachers must update grades in Schoology
While this idea was raised with the faculty steering committee, it has come to a standstill due to staff workload. “Teachers have lives outside of school,” Daniel said. “It’s sort of hard to pass a bill when most of the teachers aren’t on board.”
Promise: Connect with the general student body
The council redesigned the student feedback form to record the date of responses, allow named or anonymous responses as well as the option to leave feedback for a specific grade’s council members. Any student may attend meetings and propose a bill with a council member’s backing. “We’re really just representatives of our grades,” Elspeth LaCroix-Birdthistle, Senior Class president, said. “We care about the wellbeing of the entire school.”
Promise: Increase seating in Gordon Parks Arts Hall
A bill to increase seating in the auditorium passed, but the operations staff is still assessing location and funding.
12th grade update
“We just passed a bill to try and have the library open for one or two more hours after the school day during finals week,” Elspeth said. “We’re communicating with the librarians about this. It’s really important for students to have a quiet space to study because the hallways aren’t necessarily the best spot to concentrate.”
The senior officers are planning the graduation luncheon and ceremony, including guest and student speakers. Second-semester events will focus on bringing the grade together for their final months at U-High.
11th grade update
The 11th grade council hosted a pre-Halloween barbecue as well as a December boba event, sending out feedback forms after each.
“We did get some feedback that we need to advertise our events more, because a lot of people don’t even know that the events are happening,” Suna Choi-Hortacsu, a Cultural Union representative, said. “Our plan is to start planning and advertising earlier.”
A hot chocolate event is in the works for the second semester. The 11th grade council proposed a designated library classroom for collaborative study and discussed a bill addressing the use of physical textbooks versus PDFs, which raised copyright issues.
“We’re going to talk with the steering committee to try and make it more clear for which classes students absolutely must have the physical copy of the textbook for, whereas for others they might be able to look for online options,” Aiden Yu, class president, said.
Aiden believes that even if bills don’t pass, generating ideas benefits the whole council. “A lot of people think we don’t really do anything,” he said, “and I want to change that.”
10th grade update
The 10th grade council planned a giant gym night and ice skating gathering. Kai Lichtenbaum, sophomore vice president, attributes the events’ success to early planning. He said, “We also sent out polls about what events people wanted and when they wanted them so we could have as many students participate as possible.”
9th grade update
Ninth graders also enjoyed ice skating along with a movie night hosted by their grade representatives. “For semester two, we really want to try and organize a lock-in,” President Kingston Zhao said. “We’re also working on a teacher feedback form, where students can provide feedback anonymously or not to their teachers.” A pumpkin patch event was considered, but student feedback showed a movie night was preferred.
