Abolish Student Council

Our student council was created to give the interest of the student body a meaningful voice in administrative decisions. The Student Council should stand for the combined voices of the individuals within the student body; it should not offer an alternative to that voice by presenting an impotent, faceless image of our student body. Therefore, the Student Council needs the support and pressures of independent student organizations and movements to be successful. If Student Council dissociates itself from the individuals within the student body, this disunity will inhibit student-driven change regardless of the dedication or virtue of those within the council.

The Student Council should stand for the combined voices of the individuals within the student body; it should not offer an alternative to that voice by presenting an impotent, faceless image of our student body.

We have allowed our student council to become involved with their imagined importance, declaring false consciousness on “matters of consequence.” We have freely surrendered the what little influence has been granted to us by the administration. The administration and faculty undoubtedly have opened themselves to suggestion and change and we must take this opportunity.

Before addressing matters such as a new visitations’ policy or freedom of speech, which will require massive student input and support beyond the power of the existing Student Council, we must support independent groups with acute goals. We must provide aid to groups like the Divest Exeter movement, EASA and ALES, which all further their agendas separately from Student Council. Regardless of personal political alignment, it is the imperative for the student body to support these student movements. Student Council must fuel these smaller groups first, set precedent for advancement, and only then push for further change in more difficult matters.

However, a reform of the current Student Council, no matter how broad, cannot achieve our goals. Student Council at its core today is nothing more than a method for the administration to entrap true progress and radicalism within a box of bureaucracy and false gravity. The very nature of Student Council as an ineffective advisory body is laid plain by the student attitude of resignation and ridicule towards any sort of progress. Student Council cannot be reformed into a meaningfully student-driven organization without effectively abolishing Student Council and replacing it with a new body void of stigma.

The students who attend Student Council constitute its small power, and not the other way around. The proof of this is simply that students would maintain their existing influence in the absence of Student Council, but Student Council would not have any power without students. Power does not reside within institutions or councils, but within the individuals who comprise them.

The abolishment of Student Council and its replacement with a truly student-led organization would work wonders. A newfound dedication to and support of all student movements would advance their causes with far more substance than what could previously have been imagined. If the divestment club has already began a dialogue with the Head of the Trustees with their small band of support, imagine the potential when their pressure is magnified a dozenfold! The same can be said for any student movement today.

Then the question remains: what is to be done? As a start, the first and simplest form of action against the status quo is simply inaction. Refuse to participate in or vote for a candidate in the Student Council elections! This is the simplest form of resistance. To do otherwise is to lick the boots of a system built to stifle student voice and muffle true progress.