Letter To the Editor: Someone Should Save StuCo
It breaks my heart when things in StuCo don’t work how they’re meant to. This has been a good year for the Student Council, and we’re certainly on the up, but there exists one crucial problem that, if not addressed, will prevent us from doing anything significant, as a Council. Involvement from the wider student body is sorely lacking in StuCo, and efforts need to be made inside StuCo to highlight how we really can advocate for and defend the students and their interests, both when we are working with and against the administration.
The fact that over a quarter of Dormitory and Day Student Representatives are not part of a Committee (something they are constitutionally required to join), and the fact that nothing has been done about this fact, demonstrates the problem well. It is the job of the Executive Board to deal with this problem, and nothing has been done, but in a way nothing can be done. That is the second and deeper problem. As much as plenty of these reps don’t do anything, they don’t need to.
The reality is, StuCo can function with a small leadership team. It shouldn’t need to, but it can and usually does. Kids should be fighting as hard as they can to be a part of StuCo, and they are (see the Exec Candidates announced today, who have fought for hundreds of signatures each), but once they’re in, the grind stops, and people get complacent.
Exeter students famously have a lot to do, and so StuCo can fall by the wayside, for some. That’s fine; if a few kids have a few absences, that’s no big deal, history papers happen, but the fact that we have dozens of members of the Council who by now have missed too many meetings many times over, (and nothing has been done), proves that we are not locked in, that we are not focused, and that we are not doing everything we can for the student body. Shameful! Someone should save StuCo.
What we need is a change in culture. We need a StuCo where the grind, and a record of effectiveness, and a commitment to honoring promises, is lauded as the highest achievement in the field of “Non-Sibi-ness.” The Non Sibi spirit is, by the way, the key difference between the StuCo grind and the usual grind. The usual grind is for your grades or for your college admissions for whatever else. StuCo exists to serve the students of Exeter, to be in StuCo is to be an agent of Non Sibi. If you have an elected or appointed position, it was given to you with the understanding that you will use it to be a good and capable leader, and to help the students of Exeter who are often too busy to help themselves, or to reach out to the Administration, or to fight to improve their quality of life. That is the fight that StuCo is about, and that is the fight we ought to bring back. StuCo is better when everyone does their part, and life as an Exonian is better when StuCo does its part.
DYLAN RICHARDSON ‘26, a candidate for Student Council President