Student Government, also known as the student union or the associated student body, is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutions ranging from elementary school to high school. The Student Government helps share ideas, interest, and concerns with teachers and higher authorities about the school and organizes school-wide activities, including social events and community projects. Student Government operates in many forms but is mainly modeled loosely after the U.S. Congress.
There are a variety of ways to get elected in student government depending on the school a person goes to. Jamesville-DeWitt High School elects students for Student Government by letting their peers vote on who is most eligible for the positions in Student Government based off of their campaigns at the end of the school year.
Student Government provides a lot of roles which includes the Executive Board, Student Council, Board of Education representative, and Class Officers. Each board requires a certain number of people for each position. In the Executive Board only eight people are elected: two people from each grade. In Student Council, five students are elected from each grade and are chosen to be a representative of a set of homerooms. For Class Officers, four groups of five to seven people are elected and each group represents one grade.
Student Government follows Robert’s Rules of Order which consists of people raising their hand to start an order. After the person finishes saying their order the president will ask “everyone in favor” and people who agree with the idea say “aye”.
Sophomore Mary Jane Scott, a member of the Executive Board, says the reason why she joined Student Government is because she enjoyed it last year and likes working with a group of people. Scott’s duty as being a part of the executive board is to carry out initiatives passed by the Student Council. “Student Government has given me an opportunity to branch out new ideas and grow a tighter bond with our school community,” said Scott.
History teacher Andrew Cottet, who is one of the advisers for Student Government, says the reason why he started supervising the group is because he wanted to help seek out ideas and future events for the school, and to get to know more students. Cottet says the reason why the School Constitution changed is because the students felt like they weren’t having enough say in the government and they wanted to have more and different voices in the government. “Ever since the constitution was changed student government has been running smoother than ever before,” said Cottet. Cottet also talked about how some events they plan get canceled. One of the events that was canceled was Roots and Rhythms Night. “The reason why Roots and Rhythms Night got canceled is because we didn’t have enough people to participate in it this year. We hope to resume the project next year.”
Senior Vanessa Sobey is the co-president of the executive board. Sobey’s job as co-president is to oversee the student council, communicate with administration, and to help host big events. Sobey got into student government when she was in the fifth grade because her name got pulled out of a hat and has been in student government ever since. “I am delighted to be a member of student government, our community is so supportive and understanding,” Sobey said. One of Sobey’s goals for Student Government this year was to communicate more with the student body and create events that the senior class could enjoy.
