Progress.

Student Senate has plenty of changes to make around the school, and they are working very hard to make progress and implement them.

“Our primary responsibility is to support student initiatives within the school and dedicate ourselves to school improvement,” Student Senate sponsor Michael Pond says. “We want to focus on what problems there are in the school, and we want to be the body that helps students solve those problems and make those changes.”

One of those changes is the Wildkit Card, which has been in the works for years. The Wildkit Card is a card that students would be able to hand in at local restaurants and businesses to get a discount on what we’re buying.

“The idea behind the Wildkit Card is it would mirror what Northwestern does. It would provide students with an opportunity to get discounts at local businesses,” Pond explains. “We thought it would help our students save some cash, and so that’s going to be one of our main initiatives for the semester.”

Another change that Student Senate is working on is the dress code because of the recent protests students have held.

“One thing we’ve heard from students this year is a large conversation about the dress code at ETHS,” Student Representative Honor Allen says. “The reason we want to fix that problem is because of what we’ve heard from students and what we’ve seen from students.”

Most, if not all, of the ideas and changes that Student Senate wants to implement are student based on student ideas.

“We don’t really do anything just from our own ideas,” Allen explains. “Everything comes from what we’ve heard from other students, because our purpose isn’t really to get our own ideas out there, it’s to have student ideas and opinions to be materialized in the school.”

Student Senate meetings are always organized and are created to get work done. An agenda is created and they address each problem suggested to work on the pressing matters that students have discussed around the school.

“We usually have some sort of agenda that Mr. Pond and I figure out before the meetings. We’ll go down the list, and sometimes we have guests come in to talk about certain issues,” Allen says. “We figure out what we need to do week by week, and if anyone ever comes to a Student Senate meeting, it’ll just be us talking about whatever topic is next on the agenda.”

Student Senate meets in W311 after school on Thursdays from 3:45-4:30. All are welcome to come to the meeting, and anyone who comes can serve as a delegate.

Student Senate is able to operate because of the students and the interesting ideas that we have. The commitment that students in Student Senate have to these ideas will help to make changes around the school that would benefit the students. Whether it’s the Wildkit Card or the dress code policy, Student Senate is working to change ETHS for the better.

For more information on Student Senate and the specific positions in Senate, please visit http://www.eths.k12.il.us/domain/281.