The Fallacies of Student Leadership

By: Sienna Lovelock-Burtt

I’m Sienna Lovelock-Burtt. Last year, I was part of the student council, representing FIB. Come 2023, I lost the student council elections for vice chair.

In UWC, student council is designed to be essentially a liaison between the student body and the administration. The fundamental problem with student council, however, is that other than that relatively simplistic expectation, there’s very little guidelines of what student council is meant to do. The intentions of the student council (and the school) are good, and my aim is not to criticise the students who are a part of it - just the system that limits its efficacy.

Last year’s student council was active and involved. This was mainly due to last year’s student council chair, who pushed each representative to play their own part in directly benefiting the community they were representative of. I found this an impressive and bold move, but was disappointed that only projects “faculty-approved” or supported by the relevant admin were pushed forward. Any projects that weren’t directly beneficial to the administration, or that would face opposition within the parent community often got stonewalled, student council members overwhelmed by our school’s endless layers of bureaucracy.

Although last year’s student council was formatted as such, members of StuCo should not be dependant on the chair to carve out the scope for the year - this means that the school will jump between years where the student council wants to prioritise bigger issues within the community, and years when the student council sees their primary responsibility as planning formals and school events.

We have yet to truly see what this year’s council is planning, but whatever happens, the school community should know that what is achieved is often in spite of the administration, or limited by the administration’s support, who continue to address student council proposals and issues on a case by case basis - therefore preventing student council from understanding the limits of their influence, so that the administration can only approve the proposals or changes that they want to.

This brings us to the fundamental issue with student council. If there’s no clear guideline for what the student council is meant to do, or how they’re meant to submit it, people meant to run for elections with genuine promises will never be able to succeed unless they are popular. Of course, there are the formals, and dances, and events that present opportunities to an expectant student council candidate, but in my opinion, that’s still a very limited platform to run on.

The student council should have a set role within the community. Personally, I believe that’s something the student body should vote on - however, if that’s not possible, guidelines should be set by the administration. Is the student body primarily an activities and event coordinator? Are they meant to address underlying issues within the school, such as inequity? Should they be able to approve and utilise a student budget? I put this question to the school community, in hopes of starting a discussion to help the student council clarify its role within the community, in order to execute more effectively.