Two-year experience at MHS prevents diverse race for president

Brianna Carmack, Opinions Editor

As the election for Student Body President comes closer and closer, the run for the position becomes more and more intense.

Due to the defeat of a recent proposition to change the student council constitution, some students are left watching other StuCo members battle for the position they hoped to run for.

The proposition opposes Article V, Section A, Clause 5 in the StuCo constitution  — which restricts all students who have not been Manhattan High StuCo members for at least two years from being able to run for Student Body President. The proposition, proposed from within StuCo, asks the article be amended to state: “A term of experience in StuCo shall include the current term of office being held, as well as past terms of office held in a high school StuCo.” With the current article in place, the race for President is sometimes unopposed, leaving out new ideas and an intense race.

It is the agreement of The Mentor editorial board that the position of Student Body President should be eligible for any person who has had one year of experience in student council at MHS instead of the current two.

During the school year, there is usually an influx of new residents, mainly military families, who  become students at MHS. With the two-year student rule completely disregarding military families and those who join MHS partway through their high school career, even someone with years of student council experience outside of MHS is rejected when trying to run for president. This is completely unfair to those students.

However, knowing the school is crucial for running for such a high position in StuCo. Knowing the traditions that the school has, the community, teachers and building makes a good candidate for StuCo president. That is why one year of being an active member of StuCo at MHS is more reasonable than two years. In that amount of time, a student will be able to learn all the intricacies of the school and community. Having a two-year experience at MHS rule is causing an unfair race and creates missed opportunities for students who are extremely passionate about student council. Therefore, if past experience was considered in addition to MHS experience, MHS would open more opportunities for candidates, ideas and new traditions.

As for new arrivals to MHS, running for president could be beneficial for everyone. With a more politically diverse background from switching schools constantly and moving around the world, the ideas and new traditions brought in could make an impact on the school.

There should be an exception for military students and those who have only recently joined MHS, which should be at least two years of student council experience, combined of one year at MHS and another at their previous school. It’s not the student’s fault that they have to continuously change schools due to career choices or other circumstances unrelated to the student. Who knows, with a more politically diverse background, significant changes could be made to benefit the school dramatically. Changing the article to one year of experience at MHS would give more options for candidates and a better school in general. After all, consistency is key, but when it comes to running an entire 6A high school, some changes could be made to work for the better.