Leadership roles are a battle in a school as competitive as Communications High School, with the most coveted positions being the Student Government Association (SGA) and student council. However, many students are left wondering if it’s all a game of popularity and connections – not qualifications.
These leadership positions focus on fundraising money for the grade, organizing school-wide events, like prom or Coffeehouse, and of course, leading the grade to victory during spirit week. But, no one wants to hear the same student council speech twenty times over, and that’s when preliminaries come in.
With preliminaries, there are no posters or speeches. Only ten people make it through preliminary rounds and can run for student council. Many argue that this system is unfair, and sophomore class advisor Courtney Van Arsdale notices its flaws.
“In the preliminaries, it has to be a vote of confidence or of popularity because no one spoke on a platform, no one promised anything,” Van Arsdale said. “We’re really voting blindly on preliminaries and once we do the speeches, people will hear platforms.”
After preliminaries, candidates have an opportunity to share ideas and persuade classmates to vote for them through their speeches. Still, once the speeches begin to sound repetitive, it becomes abundantly clear that the votes have already been decided.
Sophomore Isabel Moller of Tinton Falls believes there are still chances during speeches to pull more votes, but friends of the candidates might as well cast their votes before hearing any speeches.
“Even if people don’t know you that well they could have a blank space or something like that, then they might be willing to vote for you,” Moller said. “But when it comes to friends, they won’t change their mind.”
But do campaigning and speeches really make a difference? For SGA elections, candidates work tirelessly to design and display posters, write speeches, film videos and write emails for the whole school in just a week simply for the fate to be up to the voters’ decisions.
One of this year’s SGA candidates, junior Liza Madore of Atlantic Highlands, spoke on why she believes putting effort into the campaign pays off.
“I think the posters around the school, and… making a funny video are important to a good campaign because I know I’d rather watch a video than read an email,”
Madore said. “It makes a difference because a lot of the time we don’t know kids in the other grades.”
Student-elected council positions prepare students for the real world and reflect how competitive job applications will be once students finish school. Expressing interest in these leadership positions through active participation in clubs helps your networking skills. Keeping all this in mind, student voters must ask themselves if they’re electing the most qualified candidate or the one head of the most populated lunch table.
Newly elected SGA councilmember, sophomore Phin Whedon of Wall, spoke on the recent SGA elections and his excitement about the results.
“A freshman who got on SGA, Shawn Ribero, it’s incredible and impressive, if we weren’t campaigning, like a blind vote, he probably wouldn’t get to share his platform with as many people,” Whedon said. “I am very happy with the results, I’m very happy with the council and I’m looking forward to next year.”
