At first glance, the Student Advisory Council is an excellent idea: a forum of 22 student representatives publicizing their ideas and discontent to administration. Those selected for the position are on the council during their entire high school career. In theory, it is an excellent idea. However, in practice, the Student Advisory Council currently is fraught with issues.

All teachers were asked to recommend students, but not required to do so. Students who would have made excellent representatives were left out of consideration. There should have been an application process for eligible students interested in the council to apply and be fairly selected, bringing new ideas and criticisms to the attention of administration.

Student Advisory Council members are not required to attend meetings. This is another concerning issue. We can’t expect any representative change if council members are not required or able to sacrifice their time for the council meetings. This leads me to question the interest of each member.

Do the student representatives selected even want to be on the council? A seat of an disengaged member will be wasted whereas it could be taken by a student who applied based on their genuine interest.

Above all, who are the council members? The Student Advisory council was established in December and there exists a lack of transparency in a council created by the administration to represent students.

Schwarze will meet with the council on Feb. 15 to speak directly about the transparency issue and aims to later publicize the members on the school website. Despite this, why has it taken this long for it to be public to all students? Posting an image of the council members appears to be just a quick response by the administration to address the growing concerns among students.

Having met twice and accomplished placing motivational notes on the school lockers, typically a job reserved for Student Council and North Stars. The point of an Advisory Council is to make positive changes to the school that the administration may not be aware of.

An Advisory Council made up of students is a great idea and poses a real possibility to change things however; the implementation thus far would suggest otherwise. If the Student Advisory Council is to survive this year, my hope is they begin to look at how our school can attend to the stressful climate our current education creates. If the Council is said to represent all voices, I sincerely hope they hear mine.