The Student Council: leadership for the students, by the students. Like any representative body, its constituent members bring the issues and concerns of their peers to the forefront in an attempt to get things done. In recent years, though, there has been a particularly noticeable lull in Council effectiveness. The Council itself is not to blame; rather, it is a stubborn administration that is at fault.

This year’s Student Council has achieved plenty. Its lasting legacy will be The Green Cup, a soon-to-be annual competition that President Rosen discussed in detail during his address to the school on Wednesday. Other gains have been made as well, such as longer operating hours at the Athletics Center. While these kinds of achievements are always welcome, it seems that students want more. What students want is a consideration of the larger issues, a consideration that the administration isn’t willing to give.

It’s nice to be able to play an extra game of one-on-one or eat frozen yogurt out of a cone instead of a bowl; no one can complain. But these small changes, largely tangential, go practically unnoticed. They are far in their importance from mandatory sit-down lunches or limited access to the Internet. Granted, at a school like Choate where the phrase “in loco parentis” is king, the administration has an undeniable right to use its discretion and impose its will. But its recent unwillingness to even discuss with student leaders various policies and neo-traditions is worrisome.

Historically, when important questions like a revised daily schedule have been proffered by the administration, the Student Council has not been peremptorily ruled out-of-bounds for discussing such matters. The Council, in our view, should talk all it wants about anything it wants. If its reasoning makes sense and if its views represent student interests, then its voice will be heard. The leadership of the Council should be heartened that student opinion is potentially a potent force in this environment. With that said, the Council needs to do its best to communicate its views regularly with its constituents so that students can support its efforts-- and, at times, even re-direct its goals.

The Choate website cites two priorities that define the Choate experience: “a rigorous academic curriculum” and “an emphasis on the formation of character.” These are two lofty goals that Choate, in large part, has done a very good job at achieving over the years. But administrators haven’t convinced the students, or many faculty members, that the euphemistically titled “community lunches,” to cite one example, do anything to further these goals. The more important the issue, the more important it is for the administration to discuss with students the reasoning behind a policy. In the same vein, student leaders should not be told that the administration simply won’t discuss a question as was so recently when the questions of sit-down lunches and Internet access were declared non-starters by the administration.

Both faculty and students would have appreciated open discussions on sit-down lunches, internet hours, and dress code (to name a few) before the current policies were handed down from above. Such discussions would be more effective at convincing the students that what is being done is necessary and at creating more reasonable compromises than the after-the-fact lectures the Council is plenty used to. All is not lost; it’s never too late to address a mistake, but quieting the voice of the students is not a good way to start.