Kyle Zhang ’27
In an effort to enhance student-administration communication and address key student concerns, the Episcopal Academy Student Council has launched a new initiative: the Student Senate. This new program aims to create a structured platform where students can directly voice their concerns and questions to Mike Letts, Head of the Upper School.
The idea for the Student Senate stems from a desire to expand the role of Student Council beyond event planning and community-building activities. Andrea Yu, Faculty Advisor for Student Council, explained, “I’ve noticed a lot of our [Student Council’s] plate is filled with things that build student community, planning events like homecoming and AV Day, all great things, but I thought the one thing it was missing was the opportunity for the whole student body to feel like they have a representative to the administration.” Modeled after the faculty-staff executive committee, the Student Senate provides a formal space where student concerns are collected, categorized, and presented to the administration. Students submit questions over a Google form, and they are then compiled and organized by the Student Council. The questions are subsequently presented to Letts, who will address them in a meeting with Student Council members. Following this, a written summary of the discussion will be shared with the student body via Scholium.
“We’ve started collecting the main ideas about what people are concerned about or have questions about and splitting them up into categories,” explained Ainsley Hixson ’27, President of the IV form. “There have been a lot of questions about the phone policy, homework overload, and students being stressed.” Student Council President Matt Limaye ’25 emphasized the importance of the meeting, stating, “On February 20th, we’re going to have a meeting with Mr. Letts to ask some of these questions and jot down some notes on what he says, and then we’re going to give the Scholium a written-up summary with the answers to these questions.”
Photo courtesy of @ea.upper
Michael Dimonte ’25, Senior Class President, expressed his reservations about how questions are filtered and whether this might limit the authenticity of student concerns. “We sort through questions; if they can be combined, we put them together, we rephrase them in a way that may be a bit nicer. And then we give those questions to Mr. Letts to look at before he comes to the Student Senate meeting, and then he looks at them.” Many students and faculty members see the initiative as a step in the right direction. “I hope if this becomes a successful avenue for the students, we can continue to collect more questions every year, even if some are repeated,” says Yu.
The coming months will be a crucial test of whether the initiative can create real dialogue, lead to tangible changes, and successfully create a safe space where students’ voices can be heard on meaningful issues. Even though the structure of the Student Senate is still evolving, it has the potential to foster more transparent and collaborative relationships throughout the Episcopal community by effectively closing the gap between students and administrators.