Class Committees Now in Session
Jasper Everingham | November 17, 2022
Four Class Committees — formed through a partnership between groups of students of each grade and a faculty advisor — are shaping up as a new way for students to self-organize and pursue ideas that are of interest to their specific class. Maddie Liberti, the Director of First Year Experience and advisor for the First Year Class Committee, said she’s very excited to see this idea take off.
“Class Committees were a new idea brought together by our Dean of Students, Tacci Smith, who oversees our Student Government Association (SGA),” Liberti said.“The hope was that this would be a great leadership opportunity for students who are looking for some like-minded folks that are interested in bringing their class together and hearing what their class wants to see in regards to change on campus and talk through that and make those a reality.”
Other students seem very interested in realizing that vision. Gray Faro — one student on the First Year Class Committee — said that they are excited to see where the Class Committee goes.
“[Class Committees are] basically the reforming of the student government,” Faro said. “We have a new budget where we can plan fun events and do certain things for the first year student body. I hope we have established events. I'm hoping that we'll have [the] conditions to establish more of a Wilson culture.”
Another First Year Class Committee member, Meredith Traugott, said that she enjoyed being a part of the planning and decision making process for campus events. Like Faro, she also expressed a hope that the class committees will grow.
“It's fun because we get to plan activities and just come together as a community to connect and create fun things for our class to engage in,” Traugott said. “I think it's going to hopefully progress into [a] more student government type thing, where it becomes more official as we grow. Obviously, since we are getting off the ground, it's very basic. Just come and talk. But becoming more serious and having a bigger role and impact in the actual school and the way that WWC functions and interacts with us [is the goal].”
At the first First Year Class Committee meeting, in addition to discussing the role of the committee at WWC, Liberti and the committee members also brainstormed ideas such as painting the blue chair in front of Sunderland, having a dance party and doing a potato potluck night. Liberti also added that committee members are on the lookout for community feedback as well.
“An important piece that I think will happen over the next couple of weeks is having those committee members go out and ask, friends, fellow classmates, really get an idea of not just what the committee wants to do, but what the rest of the class is really interested in,” Liberti said. “So we talked about these next few weeks getting out there and seeing what people [feel like] is missing; what students are wishing they saw on campus.”
Liberti, Faro and Traugott all also said that it is not too late for any interested students to join their class’s committee, and that the more people who join — especially upper class students, whose committees have even fewer members than the first year’s — the more each committee will be able to plan and run events and other activities.
The First Year Class Committee has only had one meeting so far this year; the other class committees have not yet met. The advisors for each committee are Liberti for first years, Kendra Powell for sophomores, Hope Hairston for juniors and both Jonathan Gonzales and Erika Orman Callahan for seniors.
“My hope for the long run is that we find a new structure that really feels like it's going to last, [so that] it feels like students on campus know that they can go to these class committees and be heard and feel like they're really accomplishing the goals of the student body,” Liberti said. “This is an amazing chance to really get a handle on looking at what happens all across campus, being a little more connected, getting some leadership skills and hopefully just having a really great time getting to know some new people on campus, so I definitely encourage folks to even just go to one meeting and check it out.”