Gracey Austin ’12, Lyssa Freese ’12
Scholium sat down with the co-presidents of student council, Jackie Blickman ’12 and Mohammed Toure ’12, for a photo shoot and discussion about the upcoming year, co-running student council, and their efforts to make student council more efficient.
Scholium: Everyone knows who the student council co-presidents are, but many are unaware of the actual responsibilities that you carry. Could you enlighten the student body?
Mohammed: As co-presidents of student council we usually have responsibility for organizing big school events like dances, spirit week and overseeing the coordination of all the activities of the other classes. Every cycle the whole student council meets on days four and ten in the boardroom.
Jackie: It takes a lot to plan those meetings. Mohammed and I also meet with Mr. Wagg once in a cycle and Mrs. Miklavcic and Ms. McLauchlan, our student council advisors, twice every cycle. In addition every grade’s student council meets once a week.
S: How has the election of two presidents changed the dynamic of student council?
M: Having two presidents actually forces us to do things more efficiently together. If I have an idea and Jackie has a different idea we have to merge them together and find a way to compromise. If things get crazy it is good to have Jackie there to share the work. I think it will be more beneficial for the student council to have two presidents than it would be detrimental.
J: I think Mohammed pretty much said it all.
S: Would you recommend having two presidents next year?
M: It all depends on how things roll out for the rest of the year. I don’t think it’s something they should plan on but if it’s like our case they should just roll with it.
J: I think Mo’s right. We work well together, but it could be dangerous for two people to share power although Mo and I are usually on the same page for a lot of things so it works for us.
S: Are there any major changes that you have already implemented for this year?
J: One of the big changes within student council is something I created called a pod. Last year I recognized that the underclassmen would sit at one end of the table during meetings and the upperclassmen would sit at the other end. The underclassmen were understandably shy and didn’t speak much during the meetings. So I created the pod, consisting of six people represented by one or two members of each class. Each pod has a leader who is not Mohammed or I. For example, Brian Metzler ’12 is one of them. The pods will stay the same for at least the first semester so the underclassmen will feel more comfortable to speak up and the meetings will be more efficient because the discussions are in smaller groups.
M: Another thing we noticed is that we lose a lot of time when our meetings get canceled because of school activities, so this year we decided that if our meetings get cancelled we will meet at lunch so we won’t lose time.
S: Is anything outside of student council being changed?
J: Last year’s activities went pretty smoothly.
M: As the year moves along, we might improvise and change things.
S: What can we expect from spirit week? Keeping old traditions or starting new ones?
J: We will definitely keep old traditions because everyone likes them. We’re planning on revising Aurora-Vesper day.
M: We will be… keeping old traditions while adding to them to try to make them more efficient.
S: Any last statements you would like to make to the student body?
J: We’re going to work together to serve the student body in the best way we can.
M: We are looking forward to a great year.
Photo Credits Alexis Hawkins, Belle Kielty