Ever since I started attending BSM I’ve always wondered who represents the voice of the student body and everytime I ask a faculty or administration member I seem to get a different response. Sometimes they say its the student council and sometimes it’s the class president, but as of yet no one has been able to give me a satisfying answer. This lack of effective representation became concerning to me during my junior year. I was overwhelmed with homework and I thought the level of stress in the student body was unacceptably high, I began searching for ways to possibly raise this problem with the administration and discovered that no system as of yet exists in which students can notify the ultimate authority at BSM, the Board of Directors, about big issues that concern students.

We as students deserve a clear voice to communicate our needs and problems to the board, administration, and faculty members.  The decisions the board makes have a greater effect on the student body than anyone else, so it only makes sense that an advocate to speak for the student body would be warranted. A student rep could also be valuable to the Board, they could provide a greater understanding of student opinions and provide them with information to make decisions.

In simple terms, this person, or persons, would represent the student body. Each grade would be allowed to elect one representative to make sure the whole student body was being heard. If a large group of students felt as though they were receiving too much busy work from certain courses they could ask this representative to bring up this problem to the board.

Now one could make the argument that this position is redundant, after all we already have the student council. But a student rep wouldn’t just replicate the student council because they would actually be present and involved in the decision making process while it’s happening. The student rep wouldn’t replace student council, it would just supplement it so that the student body could have a more active voice.

This would greatly benefit the student body as a whole. As well as the faculty being aware of our complaints the representatives could be consulted on how to find an effective solution to the problem at hand.  This student would not necessarily need a vote on the board, because they would not have the expertise to vote on certain issues, but instead be a way to offer fresh perspective and advice on how to fix problems that directly affect the student body.

I understand that these ‘ambassadors’ would not be involved in the financial choices for the school, seeing as how they have neither the experience or knowledge to make an accurate decision on the subject, and that’s not what I’m asking for.  This would not be a gateway for students to excessively complain to adults about every little thing they think is wrong with a school, rather a way to ensure that each grade is given a distinct voice that is clearly being heard by their superiors. It would be the student representatives jobs to weed through the complaints and discard the irrelevant or unimportant complaints to find out what really matters. This would be a rational way to allow the students to convey their problems to a group of people who would actually be able to help fix them.

We aren’t asking for all of the complaints we have as students to magically be fixed over night, and we aren’t asking to be the ones who run the school. BSM is an integral part of our everyday lives, and the decisions the board of directors make will determine our experience there. It is because of this we want to know for sure that our voice is being heard and taken into account over issues that will ultimately affect our educational experience.