The Exonian Investigates Student Committees

Committees, such as the Community Conduct Committee (CCC), Deans’ Council, Attendance Committee, Publications Committee and Assembly Committee, are composed of both students and faculty to give input on the Academy’s functions. With the exception of the CCC and Publications Committee, all of these committees’ members are handpicked by the Student Council Executive Board.

Deans’ Council

Members of the faculty and administration bring topics to Deans’ Council that require student input. In the fall of last year, members of Deans’ Council were among the only students consulted in appointing Bill Rawson as permanent Principal. Other topics of discussion have included Academy social media accounts, building hours and resources. 

Deans’ Council members are appointed by either the deans or the Student Council (StuCo) Executive Board. “When I was an upper, Ayush came up to me and asked if I would be interested in joining because he believed that I was part of certain demographics and certain organizations that could offer a useful perspective,” senior Suan Lee said.

Deans’ Council meets fairly often to discuss a range of issues. “We meet every two weeks,” she said. “We’ll get an email from either one of the deans or Matt Wabunoa, who’s the current chair of the Deans’ Council, about an assigned topic that the deans would like student input on.”

Altering the selection of Deans’ Council was a part of newly-elected StuCo Co-President Charlotte Lisa’s platform. “The selection process has kind of just been looking for who’s an outgoing student on campus, who knows a lot of kids and speaks to our kids—that sort of thing,” she said. “While I definitely think there's value in outgoing students, I think we really need the outgoing students, we need the quiet students. We need a very comprehensive picture of Exeter, so diversity in all aspects.”

Though some students would like to find another way to appoint students to Deans’ Council, Lee pointed out that elections may not be an improvement from the current process. “Elections can, in some circumstances, really create the most diverse group of representatives, but in other cases, it can also be influenced by which demographics are the majority,” Lee said. “Sometimes, you need appointments where you are actively seeking diversity in order to have a representative group of people. I’m sure there are ways the Deans’ Council could improve to do this more effectively, but this is our intent.”

Assembly Committee

Similarly to Deans’ Council, Assembly Committee has two students who are also appointed by the StuCo Executive Board. The Assembly Committee meets every other week to discuss the purpose and composition of the assembly program.

The two students on the committee, lower Jasmine Xi and upper Anne Brandes, are the first to serve. “If I recall correctly, [StuCo President Ayush Noori] was redoing some of the subcommittees on StuCo,” Assembly Committee Chair and English Instructor Alex Myers said. “There used to be a StuCo Assembly Committee, and he said, ‘Instead of doing that, why don’t those people just join you?’”

According to Myers, more students may join the committee in the future. “StuCo could just put more of their reps on that. Or I could put out an email and we could do an application, [seeing] if anyone else is interested,” he said. “I think the limitation is scheduling. The more people you have on a committee, the harder it is to schedule it. So I try to keep the committee small. But if I could still find the meeting time, I would happily have four students on that committee.”

Attendance Committee

As with Deans’ Council and the Assembly Committee members, Attendance Committee members also recommended by the StuCo President. This year’s members, Dawson Byrd, Paula Perez-Glassner, Milo Walshe and Kaleb Washington, were not appointed by Noori.

Student members are first proposed by the Student Council President in the spring and must be current uppers. While three are recommended, two are picked by the previous attendance committee and serve for one year. Often, the faculty on the committee serve for two years. 

A total of four people sit on the Attendance Committee at one time, two of whom are faculty appointed by Dean of Faculty Ellen Wolff. In addition, there are two students at every session, both of whom have voting privileges. 

According to Attendance Committee Chair and Dean of Student Health Gordon Coole, students play a valuable role on this committee. “They have a peer perspective which is invaluable in the committee’s decision making,” he said. “They are active in discussing each student’s situation and vote on each case.”

Community Conduct Committee

The CCC, formerly the Discipline Committee, hears level two or three violation cases on Thursday evenings and is comprised of nine faculty and four out of eight rotating students. Current members are Seth Amofa, Graham Guite, Tise Okeremi, Nahla Owens, Senai Robinson, Meredith Thomas, Matthew Wabunoha and Rachel Won. 

“The primary considerations include community wellbeing and the student’s learning process,” upper and CCC member Graham Guite said. Students may advocate for a certain response from the Academy and raise questions during committee proceedings, but they do not have voting privileges.

Unlike the other committees on which students sit, the positions on the CCC are given through a strenuous selection process. Lowers must run for a two year term by means of an election, and then are selected after an interview with Dean of Residential Life Carol Cahalane.

 “This interview process—it’s pretty rigorous,” lower Nahala Owens said. “They look at your grades, your attendance, all of it. And in the spring, you find out whether or not you’ve been selected.”

Publications Committee

Publications Committee consists of faculty and student representatives from all on-campus publications and WPEA. Students who serve on the committee hold the highest role in their respective publications. Chaired by History Instructor William Jordan, the committee approves new publications and serves as the body of final appeal for conflicts between student leadership and club advisers.

Questions Raised over Appointments

Still, students continue to question committee appointments. “There is no reason to believe favoritism does not extend to the Attendance Committee and Deans’ Council,” senior Jack Zhang said. “It's a shame the compositions of these committees, which are the formal contact points between students and administration, are determined by one or two students.”

Students questioned the objectivity of the StuCo Executive Board’s appointments. “At the end of the day, we are all high schoolers,” prep Rohan Modi said. “Who is to say that [the StuCo Executive Board] will not just pick their friends?”

Lee agreed that while questions over the committees’ compositions are natural, such committees serve an important role advocating for the student voice. “I do think there are I've heard some criticism or concerns about Deans’ Council sounds like this really secretive organization that meets with the administrators and sort of bypasses the rest of the student body,” she said. “But honestly, I think it's just a more direct way for the deans to get immediate input. We are usually just the first step.”