Student Action: The NYCSU Student Government Project

Posted by Seth Pearce at 10:44 PM

This is the first in a series of posts on the importance of student government organizations in New York City's high schools. I will also discuss the LaGuardia High School Student Government, for I which I serve, and its actions as a model for other SGOs. Enjoy! -Seth

Effective SGOs are extremely important in the fight for students’ rights and more student involvement in NYC schools. Additionally SGOs provide students with an outlet to express their opinions about their schools. By communicating student opinions to administration and faculty and planning events or creating programs for their fellow students they can play a big role in increasing student enthusiasm for their schools and improving the school as a whole.

That is why, this year, the New York City Student Union will be researching the state of student governments in schools around the city and helping develop SGOs or other student advocacy organizations in schools that don’t have them already. They will also be inviting more students actively involved in their schools to join the union.

This project has three stages: research, development and preservation. First, NYCSU will be collecting info on SGOs around the city by talking to SGO reps within these schools and collecting surveys from them. These surveys will include info about the basic everyday functioning of the SGO, the role it plays in the school, and subjective questions about the responder’s opinions on student governments in general. From the surveys, we will also collect contact information to create a citywide Student Government Network.

Once we have received a significant and representative collection of surveys we will begin to create a loose “SGO Model.” This would serve as an instruction packet on how to run an ideal SGO. We will also be on call to work with students at various schools, especially those who are part of the network, to improve their SGOs and work with them to improve their schools by connecting them with other SGOs around the city.

The final stage of the project is preservation. Each year we must update the network with new student names etc. and keep working on development when needed.

If you are an SGO representative in your school or are friends/parents of one please let him or her know about this and ask him or her to contact union@nycstudents.org or seth@nycstudents.org with the subject line: "Student Government Project"