By Michael Beeli
Staff Writer
Mira Costa Associated Student Body President Hanna Watkins is bringing student leaders throughout campus together in a student leadership group to better connect all program leaders across Costa. Although beneficial on the surface, such a group demonstrates key flaws in ASB and student representation at Costa.
According to Watkins, the group meets once a month and is comprised of prominent student leaders at Costa. The group has only met twice thus far. This program is designed for the leaders to discuss school events and collaborate on how to improve upon aspects of campus life, particularly on school spirit. The goal is to influence members in organizations to take more pride in their school, as stated by Watkins.
Watkins indicated that a fundamental purpose of the leadership group is to increase student representation throughout Costa. However, the purpose of ASB is to represent the student body through elected leaders, so reliance on a committee separate from ASB to encourage student representation diminishes the value of a united representation, as it just represents Costa’s individual programs, rather than the Costa student body as a whole.
Watkins believes that although the program can be viewed as such, the whole purpose of the program is about getting all people on campus connected because, as of now, the school is made up of numerous varying organizations that often focus mainly on themselves rather than on the school in its entirety.
Therefore, by choosing the student leaders from each organization to participate in the student leaders’ program, Watkins believes that Costa can be better connected as a whole.
Nonetheless, as opposed to ASB members who are elected by students, these leaders aren’t held to the same standard of accountability since they are not appointed by the whole student body, but instead by the various programs on campus, which, depending on the program, do not necessarily have student input taken into account when they choose their leaders.
According to Watkins, another function of the group is to get student leaders to spread school spirit to their respective programs. Instead, school spirit could be cultivated through representatives elected by students directly to garner more accurate student representation.
According to Model U.N. Secretary-General Danielle Major, the group is beneficial as it allows leaders to serve as role models for younger participants in their respective programs. Although the group will be beneficial in this sense, it overshadows one of ASB’s key functions. It would be more effective and meaningful to promote school spirit and involvement through ASB itself.
The student leadership group will help promote school spirit but uses the wrong approach. Leaders are highly involved in their affiliated program but do not represent the full student body.
A student leadership group has the potential to offer numerous benefits, such as encouraging school spirit and connecting organizations throughout Costa; however, the actual practice of the group creates a narrow base of student representation and dedicates school resources where they are not needed.
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