By Christopher Sung ‘17

It has been approximately 10 years since the start of the former Sherwood General Assembly, an institution designed to bring out leadership and bridge the gap between students and staff-administration. Originally created for the purpose of increasing student-to- administration communication, the former Sherwood General Assembly was established as a symbol and bastion of student leadership, a place where elected student representatives could voice the sentiments of their fellow classmates in order to inform the staff-administration and pursue meaningful action. In its first year of service, the former General Assembly facilitated many discussions, such as a ‘no hat in-school rule’, which the school administration later used to help make a decision on the issue.

The original General Assembly at Sherwood lasted only a few years and it was not until this year that the student representative body has reemerged. Although this development should be reason to celebrate, the current General Assembly is nothing but a broken, disorganized mess, lacking everything from passionate students to effective leadership.

Without a goal or aim for the representatives who participate in the assembly’s chaos, it comes as no surprise that many students within Sherwood see no need for a General Assembly, despite what has been called the gathering of student ‘liaisons’ and ‘representatives’. Although called a student legislature with elected representatives, members hardly represent students, or anything for that matter. Even in the words of a few SGA officers, the General Assembly is not a place of debate or discussion but rather a place where so-called representatives are required to act as messengers and take a pre-printed sheet of paper back to their Advisories.

In other words, instead of taking full responsibility and trying to take simple measures to fix the apparent communication problem between SGA and students, the SGA has decided it is a good idea to place such responsibility upon other students, in an institution that should remain separate from the SGA in order to develop individual leadership and clearly hone the voice of all students.

Students need a new General Assembly, one with the same worthy purpose as the former, but with a modified system to meet today’s circumstances. In order to attract active representatives, representation for the Sherwood General Assembly should be based off of clubs and various departments, and each group should be allotted a maximum of two representatives. Clubs and departments that are specifically recognized by the SGA or General Assembly through a vote would have the ability to participate in the General Assembly’s proceedings. In order to ensure organized discussion, the General Assembly should abide by a system of debate, such as parliamentary procedure, and make sure to implement such a system loosely, as not to confuse or alienate new members. In addition, the General Assembly should formally assume the role of student legislature, having the ability to pass resolutions, in order to communicate the wants and needs of students directly to the school staff-administration.

Sherwood can witness a great leap forward from the current General Assembly and pursue a system that will benefit all students if some of its policies are modified. Through these changes, Sherwood’s dysfunctional General Assembly can do better than just acting as a messenger system.