Calling all students, teachers, and administrators!
Join the New York City Student Union on Monday, Dec. 14t at 5 pm as we host our second Student Government Forum. The forum is being held at the UFT offices downtown (50 Broadway between Exchange and Morris.) We will bring together student representatives from around the city, as well as those who are trying to form new governments.
The goal is to establish a basis for an effective student government, help each other improve or create new entities, and connect our organizations with each other. This is essential to increasing student voice and power in our schools. The event is open to students, teachers, administrators and anyone else who wants to come.
What is the New York City Student Union?
The New York City Student Union is a completely student run organization seeking to act as a powerful, collective voice for New York City public high school students. We work to defend and improve the rights of NYC students, and to allow them to work cooperatively with educators and public officials to find solutions to problems that affect students. Through blogs, protests, forums, and other venues we express student opinion that is otherwise seldom heard. We also enable students from all over the city communicate with one another and to ensure that students are able to make the most of the broad array of educational and social opportunities we are offered.
What is the Student Government Project?
We see student governments as facilitators of student voice and unity within schools. Effective student governments are extremely important in the fight for student involvement in schools. They provide students with a productive forum for sharing thoughts and opinions with one another and a way to communicate ideas to administration and faculty. This, in addition to the role of student government in planning school events and creating programs, can play a significant role in increasing student involvement and improving schools.
That is why the New York City Student Union launched the Student Government Project. This project was developed to help create and improve student governments in high schools around the city. Last February we held our first forum. Students shared their obstacles, strategies, and successes. Many were frustrated by student apathy, lack of cooperation from staff members, inadequate funding, and lack of communication with their student body. Students recommended forming committees, presenting staff with the Student Bill of Rights, making bright posters, and playing music through the loudspeaker to get people to pay attention. We also talked about ways to use social networking sites like Facebook and other internet resources to connect more people to school governance.
At Monday's forum, we plan to continue to set standards for effective student government, help each other improve and connect our student governments, and strengthen the ties between schools across the city.
For directions and more information, visit nycstudents.org. Also check out the facebook event page. See you there!
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