Student Council passed a proposal to change the position of School President to School Co-Presidents this morning. A 20-3 vote, with one abstention, met the two-thirds majority required to pass the amendment to the Student Government Constitution. The amendment passed by the Student Council will go into effect for the 2013-2014 election cycle, which is set to begin this February. Students will run in pairs from the beginning of the election process, and the election will culminate in the selection of one pair to become School Co-Presidents, according to the proposal’s documentation. The Student Council Review Committee, which wrote the proposal, will continue to consider further revisions to the structure and responsibilities of the entire student government. “Going forward I think that the main goal of any changes that we make are to make sure that Student Council is more effective and better at representing the views of the students, and I think that in the future especially with all the changes that we hope to make this year, Student Council will be something that students take more seriously,” said Hemang Kaul ’13, School President. Just before the vote, Student Council met with members of the Student Council Review Committee in an open discussion period and then held a closed door discussion among Student Council only. Voting took place in a roll call. All three members of the Executive Board – Kaul, Rolando Bonachea ‘13, Vice President of Student Council, and MJ Engel ‘13, Executive Secretary of Student Council – voted for the change. Together, they had 12 votes. The full roll call and adopted proposal are on A5. “The idea is that in the future good examples of leadership and more examples of leadership will encourage different groups of people to run and to experience what it’s like to be a part of student leadership,” said Kaul. “Hopefully student leadership will become a more active role in the community’s campus… I’m looking forward to see how it all works out this year,” he continued. The Student Council Review Committee consists of Kaul, Engel, Williams, Tessa Peterson ’15, Samuel Green ’13, Editor in Chief of The Phillipian, Jennifer Elliott, Dean of Abbot Cluster, Frank Tipton, Dean of West Quad North Cluster, Fernando Alonso, Advisor to Student Council, and Paul Murphy, Dean of Students. Becky Sykes, Associate Head of School, is an ex-officio member of the committee.
