What's Going On, StuCo?

During Assembly on Tuesday, candidates for the 2013-2014 Student Council Executive Board made a multitude of promises to the student body, but the most basic of these was that the candidates would represent us in StuCo meetings. This raises the question of what goes on in StuCo meetings, and why StuCo doesn’t communicate better with the student body—one they promised to represent—in the first place. What does go on during these meetings?Essentially, we give full control to the leaders of our student body, but we do not actually know what that power consists of or how it is used. Sure, we’ll see the posters, we’ll hear the winners and we’ll eventually attend a few of StuCo’s events in the year to come. However, we all know that there must be more to StuCo than Laser Tag and Talent Shows. While I’m sure many members of the board whole-heartedly dedicate a lot of time and effort to StuCo, we want to know more about the debates and changes our council contemplates. Is StuCo a correct accurate representation of our ideas or just a random group of voices that may correlate to the variety of our opinions? When was the last time a member of StuCo asked you about your thoughts on an issue? And when did they follow-up with action, or even just dialogue?One compelling argument against the need for further communication is that StuCo meetings are open to the entire school, and those who are interested in what is going on in StuCo could just attend the meetings. The problem here is that Tuesday nights are heavily filled for many students. Many clubs meet on Tuesday night: both The Exonian and PEAN hold their meetings then, among others. And of course, there is the ever-important EP. Sometimes students just can’t manage to squeeze in a StuCo meeting between extracurriculars they’re actually a part of and homework.Technology use at this school is ever-evolving, and it’s the perfect medium for instantly and almost effortlessly sharing notes and proposals to the Exeter community. Some returning students can vaguely remember fiercely clicking through our former friend, Blackboard, to find takeout numbers and menus when we weren’t sure which fried rice to order. The Blackboard tab, though it tried, displayed little info beyond basic discounts and the day’s birthdays in a rainbow font. Sadly, the beloved birthday box now reads, "Happy Birthday to: Please check ExeterConnect for a list of upcoming birthdays." There may be links to StuCo minutes, but folder access is restricted for most students, and regardless, content updates stopped over a year ago. We know ExeterConnect is rather premature in many aspects, but Blackboard links for 2004 StuCo minutes will not benefit us either.I would like to note that StuCo does have its own website, www.exeterstuco.com, but prior to writing this op-ed, I had no idea it existed. I found it through Google, and in fact, upon further inspection, I discovered that members of StuCo itself did not know that such a website existed. The latest update on this website was May 14, 2012, and the only other information about this past year is an update regarding who the 2012-2013 StuCo board is. There are links on the website to StuCo agendas and StuCo minutes, but they bring you back to the same Blackboard-based, restricted folders. In addition, the domain name for this StuCo website costs money, albeit an insignificant amount, but we did pay for something that has not been utilized at all for about a year.Another question to be asked is whether our class and dorm reps have the responsibility to inform us of the happenings of StuCo. For people who want to know what’s going on, a quick email or optional five-minute dorm meeting every once in a while from the people who represent us would be greatly appreciated.StuCo makes some pretty important decisions about funding clubs and activities on campus, so why is it so hard to find out what they’re doing? There is no doubt that StuCo can deliver on big promises: just look at 24/7 internet or the buses to Boston! But they should also take the effort to communicate what’s going on to everybody else.