Council Looks at Common Ground and School Dance Form – Council Update (5/22/19)
Council opened to a small body, small enough that Council Executive Linda Addante mentioned the possibility that the body may not have had a quorum (the legislative requirement for 50% + 1 of the body to be present for a vote). However, the body met the requirement and the meeting proceeded. Notable reports included the Curriculum committee’s correspondence with Dean of Students Ms. Stevenson regarding academic integrity violations in the 2018-2019 school year.
The first item on the agenda was an allocation for a pizza party for the club of the year; the intent was not initially specified in the motion, but an amendment was later added to specify the use of the funds. Additionally, the amount of allocation was changed from $25 up to $50 as some members felt a little more leeway would be beneficial to the smoothness of the procedure. The motion passed easily, although questioning (particularly by Rep. Ryan) revealed a need to specify the criteria for the awarding of the club of the year prize. During the discussion, Student Activity Committee (SAC) Chair Reilly Uiterwyk and Treasurer Tom Lyons revealed their plan to send SAC Reps. out to every club periodically to check in.
Following the passage of the allocation, Council Executive Addante introduced the Community Representative Bylaw Notification. The bylaw change would serve to increase the number of community reps from three back up to five, the number prior to 2014. Addante explained the reasoning behind the change, saying that the intent would be to include a police officer, a parent, and three other reps that would be representative of the community as a whole.
SAC later presented a School Dance Form that would make it significantly easier for clubs and classes to organize dances. Improvements included making it easier to find police coverage and making the form easier to fill out. Numerous questions arose from the body, but in the end, the only change made was to put the form online as well.
The last item on the agenda was the Common Ground Discussion. Throughout the discussion, it was revealed that Council has many ideas to help address student issues with Common Ground. These ideas included increasing standardization and student leadership. Other more marginalized ideas included switching to single grade common grounds, switching common grounds every semester, and increasing the number of inter-common ground competitions (like the door decorating contest). Council adjourned with a final statement from Rep. McGuire about looking into other forms of leadership as well, like freshman-senior buddies.
