This year, the Associated Student Body takes on a new look as the elected executives scrap their titles in favor of a more balanced workload. Assistant Director of Upper School Meg Anderson-Johnston spearheaded the project.
“Now we’ve moved to just a four-person executive board where there’s no hierarchy of President and Vice President, but just everybody has the same position,” Anderson-Johnston said.
She explains the motivation behind the restructuring was to ease the burden for the students in leadership roles.
“The biggest reasons were to reduce stress for the four students who are involved, and particularly for that student who’s president, but for the others as well,” Anderson-Johnston said. “So reducing stress was a big part in creating more opportunities for leadership across the four executives.”
The new changes also foster collaboration among the student government.
“Also, just to be able to build stronger relationships between the members of the executive team, so that they were working together closely in different ways,” Anderson-Johnston said. “Then also have more of an ability for all four of them to mentor the representatives for the great levels.”
The decision was not made overnight; the transformations took years of consideration and reflection.
“It truly was just conversations with the executives over the course of the last five years, and even before that, when my predecessor and I discussed whether or not the workload was sustainable,” Anderson-Johnston said.
According to senior and current student body executive Owen Bradley, the new distribution of responsibility has been a major success.
“So far this year, it has worked really well, and us four execs,” Bradley said. “We have been able to collaborate and work together and spread the workload.”
He noted that the shared-leadership model has made decision making more balanced.
“I also think it’s good, because having the four, even execs, you know, someone’s biases or opinions on something doesn’t weigh too heavily on the school,” Bradley said. “It helps keep the thoughts representative of the whole school.”
Bradley looks forward to seeing how the changes work out.
“I want to bring this UPrep community together however I can,” Bradley said.
