The history of Hopkins's Student Council (StuCo) is the stuff of legend -- infighting, coups and name-calling to rival any Middle Eastern nation. In the past two years alone, StuCo has seen a half-dozen resignations, a new constitution, numerous contested elections and several months without a president.
Nonetheless, StuCo does serve some vital functions, however ill-prepared some if its members may be. Below is a breakdown of StuCo and some of the important tasks with which it is charged.
Executive Board & Student Assembly
Under the new constitution, passed two years ago, StuCo is divided into an Executive Board and a Student Assembly. The Executive Board is headed by this year's president, senior Atin Agarwal, and includes several VPs as well the council's treasurer.
The Student Assembly is composed of the class presidents, secretary/treasurers and senators on four committees (legislation, leadership, finance and authorization). The class presidents also serve as members of the Executive Board.
Vice Presidents
Within the Executive Board are three VPs and the head of the Student Activities Commission (SAC). These are the VPs for Student Life, Communication and Entertainment.
In the tradition of the U.S. government's bicameral division of powers between the Senate and House of Representatives, StuCo's two divisions are each charged with a different set of responsibilities.
Senators
Every class has four elected 'senators,' one in each of the four committees in the Student Assembly. These senators are intended to serve a more representative function than those officials on the Executive Board, though both are equally representative by nature of their nearly identical elections.
The committees of the Student Assembly determine everything from the content of StuCo bylaws to who heads up the MSE Symposium from year to year.
Student Activities Commission (SAC)
The SAC is the body of students responsible for distributing school funding to student groups for their annual budgets and throughout the year as needed.
Groups must go through many steps and classifications along the way in order to reach the upper echelon of SAC-classified groups (Class A groups). The Treasurer of the Executive Board serves as the President of the SAC.
Committee on Student Elections (formerly Board of Elections)
Thanks to a referendum sponsored by StuCo president Atin Agarwal, the oft-troubled Board of Elections (BoE) was dissolved late last year.
In its previous form, the BoE acted independently of StuCo to manage (and often botch) StuCo elections. Now, the CSE will serve a similar function, but with the oversight of StuCo's president, the Director of Student Involvement, and CSE's co-chairs.
If this all seems like an impenetrable web of bureaucracy and red tape, it should. Even we don't really get what goes on in StuCo, and we go to their meetings every week. It mostly seems like junior politicians jockeying for position before there is even any position for which to jockey.
But, if you really want to get involved, attend a weekly 7:30 meeting Tuesday night in the boardroom of Shriver Hall, or consider running for a freshman position when elections roll around in late September. Either way, good luck -- you'll need it.
