Faiyad Ahmad ’10, School President, organized a Student Council Table in Commons this Wednesday with the hope of improving Student Council’s communication with the student body. The table offered an opportunity for students to eat together and express their opinions on specific issues to each another and to the Student Council. “The table is part of an effort for greater communication between students and the Student Council, and it is a path that we are going to explore much more in the future,” Ahmad wrote in an email. Ahmad recognized that communication between the students and the administration “on a whole can be somewhat of a gray area,” he said. “I believe that both side are trying to express their opinions, but there is a disconnect in the perception of these opinions, and that needs to be worked on. It will take effort on behalf of the students and the adults to improve communication, but the initial push will need to come from the students,” wrote Ahmad. Ahmad considers this issue as “one of [his] main priorities now]” and will continue to work on it over the year. “We created the Student Council Table so that students would be able to talk to their representatives, [and] to let us know [about] any questions, comments or concerns because the Student Council is here to speak for everyone in their grade,” said Julianna Wessels ’12, Lower Representative. “It is an open agenda, so anything that is on the students’ minds is really what we want to talk about. We had some topics set up for [Wednesday], just some recent events like the Pep Rally, Wellness Week and A/E and students’ opinions,” Ahmad wrote. The Student Council Table is a forum very similar to Head’s Table, where students can join Barbara Chase, Head of School and Rebecca Sykes, Associate Head of School, in a discussion of campus topics. Ahmad’s main goal for the Student Council Table is to “have a place where students can input their ideas easily and informally, a place outside of Student Council, [which would allow] the representatives in the Council to get feedback from their peers and carry it to the Student Council and administration.” Ahmad thought it would be interesting to try a similar venue with the Student Council and he hoped it would serve as a good way to connect with students. Ahmad and the Student Council will try a few different types of these meetings throughout the year. They hope to have meetings at least twice a month with different people in different places. “We tried out the Mural Room, so in the future we might move into one of the Commons dining halls or perhaps the Den. Anywhere where students feel comfortable just sitting and talking with us,” said Ahmad. Ahmad hopes that these meetings, along with School Congress meetings each term, will encourage more communication between students, Student Council and the administration.
