Vinh Tran ’29

Everyone has heard about the 8-9 Student Council and its 10-12 counterpart, but the 6-7 division’s council has been dormant since 2014 because the previous teacher who set it up, Ms. Fichuk, retired and no one else wanted to sponsor it. Six students from each grade were elected by their peers to the council this year after it was restarted.
The new student council is quite similar to the old one. A teacher sponsors the council while the students are the ones who direct it. If the students want to create or abolish a policy, they first will have a meeting about it, then the students’ ideas are shared with the 6-7 Division Head Mr. Dineen, or the dean, Mr. McCracken, to see if they can be implemented.
The council is being revived since, according to Mr. Dineen, “Now it is time to give students more control over 6-7.” Mr. Dineen’s goal for the student council is that they “work on new policies and procedures to benefit their own experience in 6-7.” The first official meeting of the new council is sometime after winter break in January.
Candidates are excited to get to work helping their peers. A 6th grader said he desired to be the “voice of students” and “build bridges between students and teachers.” He also “wanted people to trust him.” A 7th-grade candidate wanted to “make changes people want and tell teachers what students want.” He also thinks that the council will succeed.
54 students ran for election to 6/7 Student Council, 37 from 6th grade, and 17 from 7th. Students had six votes for candidates in their own grade. Candidate posters popped up around the West Campus in the weeks building up to November 29th, telling students to vote for them.
6th and 7th grade deserve their own student council after nine years of inactivity. The question is what change will they create once they start having meetings? Hopefully, they will compose policies that benefit 6-7 for many years to come.