Dear Students,
The administration claims there is not enough room in the College Office to accommodate all the students, and as a result, not enough privacy. The proposed solution, suggested by the Parents’ Association (PA), aims to switch the Student Union (SU) offices with the College Office, affecting not only the Student Union but also The Spectator, Arista and the Big Sibs.
While the issue of College Office space is a legitimate concern, switching the SU space with the College Office is not the solution. Many rooms remain unused throughout the school. As the years pass, Stuyvesant has undergone a dramatic reduction in student liberties. Within the span of a few short years, students have witnessed the implementation of scanners, first solely in the morning for attendance purposes, then implemented during lunch periods as well, as well as a harsh and cumbersome locker policy. The SU remains one of the few remaining areas that can be considered student space. A switch would be permanent, whereas even the locker policy and the ID scanners are not permanent policies.
Even if the College Office gains additional space, there is no guarantee of a better College Office experience. There would not necessarily be any more college counselors or more frequent or individual meetings. Juniors would still have college advisement meetings in groups with two other students, leaving the issue of privacy untouched. At best, a switch would increase privacy marginally and reduce student liberties dramatically.
The current locations of the two offices are suited to their functions and a switch would hamper the efficiency of both. The SU, located behind the senior bar, is usually surrounded by a large number of students and a large amount of noise, which is not a problem for the SU. On the other hand, the College Office is currently situated in a relatively noiseless environment and must continue to do so.
In the event of a switch, noise in the new SU location would disrupt classes nearby while noise near the senior bar would disrupt the College Office. Perhaps we would be promised that the Senior Bar would remain unharmed. This is a familiar strategy—not too long ago, we were “promised” that the scanners would be used solely for attendance purposes. Less than a year later, that “promise” was broken. Preserving the SU is something we can be sure of; promises are not.
The structure of the SU space allows for the various student organizations that find their home there to function productively. Big Sibs, Arista, The Spectator and the SU are all able to work, conduct interviews and discuss relevant issues in private because they each have an individual office. A switch would make this impossible and significantly hamper the function of all student organizations involved. Were we all to be housed in one communal office, it would be extremely difficult to maintain confidentiality.
The PA claims the SU space is not being used to its full potential. The PA asserts that while every student will walk through the College Office, not every student will spend time in the SU office. What they fail to grasp is that the SU office allows us to organize everything that makes Stuyvesant interesting and fun. The SU oversees all clubs and publications, allocates $40,000 in funding to clubs every year and organizes the club/pub fair. The SU is responsible for coordinating SING!. We fund the entire production, organize rehearsals, arrange ticketing and select coordinators and judges. Without the SU, SING! would be impossible.
While students may not be physically present in the SU office (although we strongly encourage you to be), every student is impacted by the programs and activities the SU makes possible. For these reasons, we believe this proposal would be detrimental to student rights, organizations and activities and we urge the student body to assist us in rejecting this plan.
Yours,
Jamila Ma & James Kim
Student Union President and Vice President 07-08
