Today
I did more research on how to improve the house system. I did countless
interviews of students with leadership roles at the school. It has come to my
attention that people do not take house leaders as seriously as people who are
in Senate. In the future we would like to get rid of this stigma because each
leadership role serves a special and important role in the school’s ecosystem.
Some of the students I interviewed claim that some of this lack of respect for
house leaders stems from the fact that it is the last leadership role to have
an election. It appears to many students that the only people who run to be a
house leader are those who have previously lost a senate or HIC election.
Therefore, it makes the house leader role look like the one that is for losers.
This is something we think really needs to change in the future. One idea we
have is to have House Leader elections at the same time as Senate elections
next year. Getting rid of this stigma will give people more respect for the
house system in general.
Till
next time,
Ali
Ali-
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post/results from speaking with students about the way house leadership is viewed by the school. I’ve noticed this as well—that people say “Oh she only wants to be a house leader because X, Y, and Z didn’t work out for her.” I also think part of the problem is that, to the outside world, it looks like the job of a house leader is to just plan games and read announcements. In theory, we know that there’s a lot going on “backstage,” so to speak. House leaders coordinate service opportunities, the Shakespeare Competition, etc., but I think that one way to remedy this misconception of how serious the House Leader positions are would be to make the school aware of how much house leaders really do to change the school. Yes, the Senate has actual say in how the school is run, but a lot of what we do is planned by house leaders, so showing the school how important their work is would definitely help with this lack of respect. Best of luck!
-Sarah