By Kayla Markowitz – Staff Reporter

The Jonathan Law Student Council is elected at the beginning of every school year through a process of selecting an office and then getting student and teacher signatures in order to run. Once students are in the running for a desired position, Election Day is held where students get to hear speeches from each candidate and vote on who they think is best to fill each role. 

While the current process is adequate, it is time for an upgrade. Instead of this process, students should run for the council and then once the top six students with the most votes are elected, the council and advisors decide on roles to give everyone. This process will eliminate the appeal of running only for titles like the president and vice president and would promote students running purely to help their class. Running for the council before filling certain roles will help guarantee that everyone will take their jobs and responsibilities seriously. This process also allows roles to be chosen after elections are done which ensures that people with different skills will get to fit their position. For example, someone who wants to be a treasurer and believes that it’s the right role for them can be elected treasurer once elected to the council. 

Some may argue that Law should keep the old process to practice how elections are run in real life. While this argument is understandable, one way to include both arguments is only freshman classes will go through elections with the updated process because they are new to the school and don’t know how much leadership or responsibility council members should have. 

Many times, students run for positions on the council only because they’re running unopposed or they win because no one else ran for that position. This system would eliminate that appeal because it focuses on electing students purely based on responsibility. 

If these changes were put in place it would guarantee a responsible and hard-working council while also decreasing the likelihood of students running only for titles.