The Student Government Association (SGA) acts as a multi-grade council to represent the study body of Communications High School (CHS). However, for the second year in a row, the council has been majority male with a male president leading the predominantly female population.
The makeup of the junior class, for example, is 77 students: 60 girls and 17 boys. The other three grades at CHS follow this same pattern of majority female students.
“The numbers don’t add up,” junior class co-president Isabella Remolina of Shrewsbury said. “I don’t know if it’s this underlying factor, that we gravitate towards the guys [when voting].”
SGA elections for the 2024-2025 school year took place on May 10, 2024. With an equal number of female and male candidates for both the council and executive positions, the council was voted to have three males and two females.
The SGA is tasked with planning and executing many of the student-wide events that take place during the school year, such as Fall and Spring Spirit Week and Color Wars.
Junior Phin Whedon of Wall Township, SGA president for the upcoming school year, still thinks the student body can be spoken for, despite the gender distortion on council.
“We work hard to get students’ opinions by sending out polls for spirit week themes, to figure out which ones people want, and we are gonna use more student feedback in the upcoming year for spirit week events and themes,” Whedon said. “I think, personally, we are a good representation of what students want.”
From a supervisor perspective, SGA advisor and chemistry teacher Erin Wheeler is aware of the pattern of representation discrepancy on the council and aims to encourage more female students to get involved in leadership.
“I don’t know the reason, but I have racked my brain on numerous occasions. I have even tried to say it in my class, prior to election,” Wheeler said.
However, both Wheeler and female students don’t see this issue as limited to the walls of CHS.
“I think it’s just a microcosm of the society in which we live, unfortunately, and we need to change it, as soon as possible,” said Wheeler.
