Student Council (STUCO) has many responsibilities, some of which are giving a voice to the student body and raising funds for school-wide activities. What many don’t know is what actually goes on during STUCO’s weekly open meetings.
“The meetings serve as just a check-in time to see what classes and committees are doing and if they need to get anything approved,” junior and student body Class President Jackson Davis said.
STUCO holds meetings open to faculty and staff in the library every other Monday from 6:30-8:30 p.m. where all members share and discuss the concerns of the student body. The meetings follow a certain procedure to ensure all committees within the council are accounted for.
“We follow an agenda so that each class and committee has a chance to discuss certain talking points to update the council,” junior and Officer of Class Involvement Karli Kolls said.
Davis said the main goal of STUCO this school year is “to give the student body the opportunity to be involved in a variety of student driven events,” and that the council strives to accomplish this goal at the end of each meeting.
“I believe we accomplish at least one thing at the meetings for sure, which is student business,” Davis said. “We have gotten a number of concerns from students and are trying to make sure Northwood students’ voices are heard.”
Sophomore and student body secretary Gray Meacham feels that STUCO serves as link between the students and the administration.
“By listening to the student business, it allows the President, Jackson Davis, to reach out to the administration and list the (concerns) of the student body,” Meacham said.
Every member of the council has a specific role in how the meetings are carried out and STUCO is broken into various groups: advisors, executive officers, senators and officers.
“During meetings, we all have a specific duty,” Meacham said. “The advisors must watch over the members of the council and make sure each movement is for the benefit of the student body; the executive officers must guide and lead as an example for the other members of the council, senators must represent the members of the student body, and the officers include the Class President, the Officer of Community Service, the Officer of Class Involvement and the Class Officer of Fundraising.”
The STUCO meetings are open to the public and some executive officers encourage students to attend.
“We encourage students to come to our meetings,” Davis said. “I believe a lot [of students] don’t attend our meetings because they either don’t know about them or they don’t want to come back to school at 6:30 p.m.”
Despite what goes on during STUCO’s meetings, Kolls would like the student body to know that the council is serving their best interests.
“Everything that student council does or tries to do is for the student body, so (students should) try to participate in our events more in the future and also realize that when concerns are brought up to the council, we relay that information to the administration. If you want to hear their feedback, you can ask any student council member for it,” Kolls said.
-Madeline Conte
