Eight Schools Association Brings Leaders to Campus
By Maddie Broder ’09
News Associate Editor
On Sunday, October 28th, eleven student council representatives met at Choate for the first-ever Eight Schools Association conference for student leaders. Choate’s Student Council President, Jin Ha ’08, organized the conference, which was modeled on the Eight Schools Association of which Headmaster Shanahan is the current president.
The Eight Schools Association includes Andover, Choate, Deerfield, Exeter, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Northfield Mount Hermon, and St. Paul’s. Twice a year, the headmasters of these schools hold a conference to discuss school policy issues. The goal of the first student meeting was to promote the sharing of ideas among students at different schools, and Choate’s student council president was inspired by the success of the headmasters’ interschool talks.
“I’ve been on student council since freshman year, and I was really curious about how the other schools function,” Ha said. “I wanted to learn more about other school policies, because presenting policies that differ from ours could persuade our administration to possibly change.”
Opinions Differ
Only a few minutes into the meeting it became clear just why holding this type of meeting was important: students’ responses to questions differed greatly from school to school. For example, Andover’s student council presidential election shares more of the attributes of a model presidential campaign than of a typical high school election. “Usually around twenty candidates run for president, and campaigning gets a little insane. A candidate will make shirts and hang up posters around campus,” said Teddy Collins, Andover’s student body president. “There are also two debates on the school radio station.” Many of the other schools, like Choate, do not allow campaigning during student council races. At some schools the entire student body votes for the president, while at others only the students of the senior class participate.
Student government varies among the schools in several respects beyond campaigning rules. Structural differences also affect the student council in different ways. Exeter has a faculty-run school, which means that every student council proposal passed must first be approved by the entire faculty. “It’s hard for us to get on the faculty meeting agenda every week,” said Dylan Rapoport, student council president of Exeter.
School Size Changes Things
School size also plays a major role in the way the different student councils function. One of the two largest schools, Exeter, has a voting house of at least ninety members, increasing to a hundred and twenty by the end of each year.
Despite several differences in student council structure, the issues facing many of the student council representatives are the same. While no other school is reviewing the idea of a new golf course, most student governments are championing long-standing goals such as later internet hours, looser co-ed visitation rights, and more relaxed dress code regulations. Hoping to promote environmentally sensitive behavior, some of the schools are trying to eliminate tray use in their dining halls.
President Ha had planned the meeting since the beginning of Fall Term after getting the names of the student council presidents from Mr. Shanahan last spring. The meeting came together quite quickly. “All the student council representatives were really on board with the meeting idea,” said Ha. With the help of student council advisers Ms. Homan and Mr. Velez, dean of students Mr. Ford, and student council Vice President Learah Lockhart ’08, a date was set for the conference. “Everyone was really surprised it was happening so quickly,” confessed Ha. “The student body president of Exeter e-mailed me saying that he was really impressed that we could organize the event in such a short amount of time.”
In attendance at the meeting in addition to Ha and Lockhart were the following students: Dana Brisbane and Geoffrey Oqualesi, of The Hotchkiss School; Evan Abrams, of Northfield Mount Hermon; Jonathan Adler and Teddy Collins, of Phillips Academy Andover; Dylan Rapoport and Ali Comolli, of Phillips Exeter Academy; and Hugh Koeze and John Cronin, of St. Paul’s School. Representatives from Lawrenceville and Deerfield could not attend.
Upon the other students’ arrival at Choate, Ha and Lockhart hosted a luncheon at the Sally Hart Lodge to break the ice before getting down to business. The conference began in the early afternoon and was held in the Science Center Lounge. The group had a full agenda to run through over several hours. On the list of discussion topics to be covered were: description of student council structure, the top three issues facing the student council, the details of current student council projects, school policies such as co-ed visitation regulations, internet hours, strike systems, late and absence regulations, and finally plans for the next conference and a means of communication until the next meeting.
The representatives agreed that their next meeting would be held after winter vacation and hopefully with all eight schools. Lockhart suggested setting up a group on Facebook, and everyone agreed as well to exchange e-mail addresses. The next meeting will likely involve reflection on the first conference and ways to improve upon what has already been established. The next meeting may also be at a different location, “but only,” said Hotchkiss’s Oqualesi to the Choate delegates, “if you bring the pumpkin spice cake.”
“I hope future student council representatives make an effort to continue with this association. It’s a great way for students to connect, and we can learn a lot from each other,” concluded Ha.
“Two, or thirteen, heads are always better than one,” agreed Koeze of St. Paul’s School. “The most important thing we can do now is to turn these meetings into a tradition.”
Student Leaders conferenced on current issues and their school policies. PHOTO/Mike Tsai '10
