The student council has downsized by making changes to committees. In previous years, each committee coordinator had their own committee of students. This year, the Clubs, Athletics, Academic, Arts, and Sustainability Committees are made up solely of the coordinator, with the exception of the Communications Committee which has maintained its full committee. Further, the Diversity Committee was eliminated entirely.
Student Activities Coordinator Frances Ferrell explained that the committees were initially conceived by former Dean of Student Life Programs Eve Kulbieda as a way to encourage more students to be involved with the student council. However, it was difficult to keep everyone productive, as well as hold them accountable for their work with so few meetings including all members.
“There were so many people in the student council and, you know, committee members previously, they weren’t actually even invited to most of the student council meetings,” Student Body President Jackson Deutch said. “They would come once a month and it was just a system that wasn’t really working out. It didn’t make much sense, it wasn’t efficient, so we kind of cut that out.”
Feedback from committee coordinators showed that the student council leaders felt it was more difficult to accomplish things because they had to find ways to utilize their committee rather than just getting the work done. Student Body Vice President Paige Miller explained that the coordinators have a better understanding of their roles in the student council and are more dedicated to taking action this year.
“I feel like my focus would kind of just be on, like, keeping that committee alive and interactive while my focus wouldn’t be on clubs [specifically], trying to figure out ideas myself,” Clubs Coordinator Desiree Ramon-Aquino said. She feels that the club leaders already serve as a committee she can ask for feedback from and consult with when she has new ideas.
This new format simplifies meetings for the student council leaders in addition to the committee coordinators. “I just find student council meetings to be a lot more manageable [now] just as someone that’s running them,” Deutch said.
The committees that were cut entirely this year have a presence in other ways across campus already. One such club, Knight Vision, is carrying out community engagement work across campus, according to Ferrell. Affinity groups and the Unity Club on campus already collaborate to make Menlo more diverse and inclusive. “We were strategic about which ones we kept, and which ones we didn’t,” Ferrell said.
