The Student Council has revised the student government constitution and will soon bring their proposed revisions up to a popular student vote for ratification. A clause in the constitution mandates that it must be subjected to review and revisions every three years. A subcommittee of the Student Council, spearheaded by junior Knowl Stroud and aided by sophomores Natasha Nugent and Mateo Whalen-Loux, was tasked with revising the constitution. 

Students are able to view the Student Council Constitution via the Student Council page on the MGRHS website. While most of the changes “don’t really affect your average student,” Stroud said, there are four main changes that could. 

The first big change is about revisiting the restrictions for Class Officers and their meetings. The committee decided to more strongly reinforce a rule that was already in the constitution: the class treasurer must publish a quarterly report of the class finances for the entire class to see. 

In addition to this, Stroud explained how they “also added that all class officer meetings must be open door, so anyone from the public [can] attend.” Students will be notified when their grade’s Class Officers are meeting, in case they would like to participate or bring something to their attention. 

The second main change is regarding AI for Student Council speech-writing. Students have always had to write a short speech for the day of the election, but if ratified, they cannot employ AI to write their speeches. 

According to Stroud, “If someone is suspected of using AI, they’ll be asked to rewrite their speech.” The Student Council is expecting that the students seeking to be part of student leadership should  have the moral standing to refrain from using AI. 

The third main change slightly alters an internal practice of the Student Council. Each year, they have published a diversity report of their members and their gender, town residency and extracurricular activities. Stroud said the report “gets published at the start of every year.” The subcommittee hopes to also include race in both their data collection and beginning-of-year report. 

The last change was an addition to Article VI of their constitution, which speaks on prohibiting discrimination. Stroud said that the subcommittee added “cultural identity, gender, and language” to the article.

Although these changes do not necessarily apply to everyone, Mount Greylock students are integral in the ratification process. The new constitution will be posted on the student council bulletin board for review and an opportunity will be provided to discuss the changes during a directed study after they are posted. The ratification vote will be included in the yearly elections. If you have any questions about the process or the constitution, contact Knowl Stroud at kstroud@mgrhsstudent.org.