By Sophia Lashmar, Year 12
Last Wednesday, 24th of April, LGB’s own Auditorium was host to a ‘Meet the Candidates’ session for the 2024 Governing Board Elections. For this year’s elections, there are 5 open seats for the 15 candidates who have been put forward. While many questions were asked at Wednesday’s meeting, LGB’s Stuco and the LGB Express asked a question of their own to the candidates, which was What are your opinions on the role of the student body in decision-making on campus?
If Ecolint was a country, and LGB, Nations and La Chataîgneraie each made up its three regions, the Student Councils would be local representatives, and the student newspapers would be there to make sure the central government was serving their needs. In our little Ecolint country, student voice is very powerful and students take an active role in organizing events on campus, advocating for what they believe in, and by writing about it.
However, students do not yet have a vote or a say in many of the major decisions made about their campuses or their learning. Students do not get seats on the board, and most likely never will, as the IB is far too time-consuming for us to branch out into governing boards! By asking the candidates if they could see a future where the students had more of a say in decision-making on campus, it would pave the way for students to actively participate in improving their school experiences and sharing their opinions with those making the decisions. So, will power be coming to the students anytime soon? See the candidates’ answers below…
Mr. Arafat Jamal said, “What do you get out of that? If we could help make what Stuco and the student body say count, and use that to make a difference and also push back on the student government if they make unrealistic demands, that would give you a meaningful voice and accountability for results.”
Ms. Fariba Hashemi replied, “The students have one of the most important voices, because at the end, the school is for you. I would like to see student representation on every committee to hear their opinions, just to hear them out.”
One candidate, Mr. Ismail Ersahin, answered succinctly, and holds a view that is much appreciated by student newspapers, “This is your right to raise your voice. So, have self confidence. Raise it. Force us. Get it.”
Mr. Dan Bihi-Zenou said, “The school is for the students. We need to help you get all the voices heard, as some have good ideas and good points, but don’t express themselves. Get everyone heard, because the voice of the students is most important.”
Poetically put, Ms. Kristy Barclay said, “There is a saying, “tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand”. I think that as a community we need to better understand each other. To understand your needs, and involve you more via Stuco and various other avenues that you may have, we need to revisit those processes and make sure that that is effective in understanding what you would like, so that we’re not just hearing you, but understanding you.”
Mr. Ijeoma Aghanya responded, “We need to listen to what the student body wants and give you guys the microphone to tell us how you want to be heard, and so that we are the ones to listen. Giving you a voice on the board, where a student representative comes to the board to tell us what the student body is thinking, what your pain points are and what you would like to see happen. This is a concrete way of giving you access to the decision-making body.”
Ms. Veronica Walker explained, “It’s one thing to set up the process by which you can engage, but then the important thing is to make sure that you are able to do that, as there are a lot of things on students’ plates. So it is crucial to have that conversation with the student body, to understand what you need to do to put forward your voice. We should also recognise that student voice is not homogenous, so collections of voices should be brought in, in such a way that you can actually make a difference to the decision-making.”
Mr. Christian Tetrault commented, “It’s vital that the students are involved. When we think about the values embraced by Ecolint, inclusion is one of those. So being part of the community, it is vital that your views be heard. We should create space for this, we should listen actively and show that we care. Also to make sure that we get the diversity of thoughts and perspectives, even within Stuco, we want to make sure that every student’s voice can be heard.”
Ms. Svetlana Ryzhik remarked, “I think a lot of bodies already exist. It’s important to respect the diversity of students. Some are more expressive, while others are more shy and reluctant to express their ideas. What would be an option to adopt this practice that already exists in many organizations is an online idea box on how students would like to improve their school, which can be taken into account on a monthly or quarterly basis with some consolidated answers, to ensure that the student perspective is heard.”
One candidate, Mr. Brian O’Dwyer, spoke of their own experiences as an undergraduate student, “when I was in college, my university didn’t listen a lot, so I created a survey of students, got the feedback, and used that to advocate for more, for our students”, and how they sat on committees when they were in graduate school. He also drew on his perspective as a professor and how his students were asked for feedback on his teaching and how this practice was very valuable. This already takes place within Ecolint, with students having filled out surveys for their teachers earlier this school year, in a show of student voice being taken into account.
Ms. Vanessa Mattar Boley stated, “The spirit of multilateralism applies, even though we’re not a state, but a school. I think that the student voice is not only important, but it is critical. Working together and being together is better. It is very important that the board considers your voice and we listen actively. It’s just a question of how your ideas reach us.”
The final candidate, Ms. Lulwa Naman, an Ecolint alumna, had a fresher take on our question, drawing on her own experience from her school days as president of her student council and said, “I understand where you sit, I understand why you would ask that question, and why this question comes up all the time. It might be that the answers and actions from those answers are not sufficient. So we might need to reexamine what happens when you ask this question, and why you keep asking it. To respond to this, I have an idea: The students live with the decisions that the adults make, whether the adults are board members, people on different committees, teachers and so on. It might seem a little unbalanced, because you consume the service, you consume what is being delivered here at the school, yet you may not actually be the group that gets the most voice. I do recognise that imbalance, and I don’t think it’s easy to change that imbalance over time, but there must be some ideas. So for example, let’s say that there is a capital project that is being designed. Is there a student voice in the design room? Is there somebody who is a student, walking through (you might not understand all of the technical architectural lingo, that’s not why you’re there), but you’re there to experience it from a user point of view. The student voice should be woven into the major decision-making processes from the very beginning, so you’re not just left to be at the end.”
Good luck to all of the candidates, and we hope to be working with you soon!
