Student Alliance, New Trier’s student government organization is once again off to an active start. With new student leaders, goals are set high for what they want to accomplish.
The Student Alliance president this year is senior Richard Wu, who beat out fellow senior John Brady in last year’s election.
The Student Alliance vice-president is senior Zach Urisman. The secretary is senior Helen Ding and the treasurer is Mike Foy.
The biggest issue SA is currently working on deals with fundraising. This year students have limited rights regarding bake sales and food sales during lunch.
Due to a no compete clause in the schools contract with Aramark, New Trier’s food provider, students cannot sell anything that is provided by the cafeteria. This means that bake sales cannot happen because the cafeteria sells baked goods. No more Chipotle. No more Dairy Queen.
Policy co-head John Brady is in charge of organizing the policy changes that Student Alliance wishes to achieve. This year Brady plans to help “secure the rights of the student body to sell outside foods for [organizational fundraising].”
While Foy does not “see many obstacles in SA’s future,” Brady feels that the fundraising issue will take a great amount of effort because it deals with a very large contract.
That is not the only project on the horizon though. Brady said, “Another project we’re looking into is getting a speaker system in the field house that would be used by gym classes and sports teams.”
Whatever Student Alliance does, it will always be inline with their goal, as Wu stated, “to represent the student body and to push for projects that make this school a better place.”
A problem that Student Alliance has faced in the past and will most likely face this year, however, is student apathy. In the past few years, Student Alliance forums have grown in popularity, but the student body still does not feel an emotional connection to their representative peers.
To combat this, Brady suggested a number of options for gaining more public involvement and approval.
Brady said, “I do think we are [doing a good job communicating with the student body], but that’s not to say we couldn’t do better.”
As of right now, communication only happens through two channels. The first is advisery visits and the second is Advisery Forums. That does not mean that they do not hope to expand into other means of communication.
Student Alliance is hoping to get their facebook page “back up and running,” said Brady. They are also interested in using Twitter.
Lastly, SA has considered the idea of a monthly newsletter about what is new.
Student Alliance meets 9th period in room 009, Monday through Thursday. Email [email protected] with any comments or questions.