Since their inauguration in the spring of 2017, the Student Council’s ambitious goals for UNIS are in varying states of progress. UNISVerse tracks their accomplishments throughout the past few months.

Social Events:

The Winter Formal, held on February 2, marked the first Tut House Student Council’s first organized event of the year. Student Council has decided to bring back the Winter Formal for the first time in a couple of years. According to an unnamed member of the StuCo, “The winter formal was a huge success. Approximately 200 tickets were sold and 1200 dollars was raised.” This covered the entire cost of catering and decorations for the dance, with the leftover revenue going into the future Student Council budget. The same source said, “With such success, it wouldn’t be naïve to expect [another Winter Formal] next year.”

The idea to host a winter dance had been decided in September by StuCo members and faculty. Several members of Student Council were selected to form a planning committee led by Vice-President Tejaswi Thapa, T4. Preparations for the dance began in September, but most of the details were decided in January, when the group met twice a week.

The Winter Formal is the first of many events that Student Council will be hosting this year to unite the Tut House. Student Council hopes to organize events similar to last year, such as Kanye Day or Pajama Day, or raising school spirit by rewarding the most spirited advisory group with pizza.

“There is the possibility of bringing back the carnival,” Kiran Wijesekera, T3 StuCo representative, said. “Ultimately, the administration decides, but now the main focus is about getting the course evaluation forms out. We are waiting for a wave of feedback from advisories. We also have Spirit Week. There should be some pretty creative days with hopefully a cultural showcase; I can’t reveal dates because they haven’t been approved yet.”

Bathroom Changes:

Aside from social events, the Student Council has tackled the issue of bathroom organization. The recent segregation of bathrooms into student-only and teacher-only by the administration has provoked confusion and outrage among the student population and has become one of the most contentious issues for Student Council. “We switched the bathrooms on the fourth floor with the request of the student body and separated bathrooms to students and adults only. Because of this switch, we’re working on inputting urinal dividers to increase privacy in the 4th floor male bathroom.” said an unnamed StuCo representative.

Student-Teacher Communication:
Student feedback has indicated that the student body feels that, overall, student-teacher communication is lacking. To try to resolve this, the Student Council created feedback forms for students to evaluate teachers’ performance. To avoid conflict, the forms will be kept anonymous. But while StuCo hopes that these forms improve the quality of teaching, they anticipate some setbacks. “While some teachers are willing to use them, the ones that aren’t are often those who need the feedback the most.”