2013 Class Dean Louise Brown at the Third Year Yard Party, which was organized by the 2013 Student Council.
The class of 2013 has a resource that is nothing like the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) or the Career Resource Center. This resource—the 2013 Student Council—has only one purpose: to ensure that juniors are having a good time.
“I was thinking about doing WSA my freshman year because I hadn’t done any student government stuff during high school,” said Emily Berman ’13, a member of the Class Council. “But I realized a lot of WSA was about policy, and I wasn’t interested in that aspect so much. Dean Brown sent out this email about the council and it seemed like a fun way to set up events and stuff for the class but without all the paperwork.”
Ever since its establishment at the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year, the 2013 Class Council has set up social events for students in order to promote class unity.
“The Class Council is very focused on the class of ’13,” said Laura Yim ’13, another council member. “The WSA deals with more school-wide outreach. That’s not to say that we don’t love the rest of the classes too, but we’re just promoting community in our own class.”
So far, the council seems to have succeeded.
“Creating a class council seemed like a good way to connect classmates with one another for the purpose of sponsoring events that would bring the past together,” said Dean for the class of 2013 Louise Brown. “The Council as an entity gives visibility to the awesome Class of 2013 across the University, promotes a sense of the class as a whole, and provides individual students the opportunity to cultivate leadership skills.”
This past Sunday, the council organized a “Third Year Yard Party” in the LoRise courtyard, featuring pizza and music played by class DJs Channy Kitt, Mackenzii Webster, and Adrien DeFontaine. Past events organized by the class council over the last two years include study breaks during finals weeks and the dodgeball tournament held last semester-—a third of the tournament’s proceeds were donated to a relief fund for victims of the flood in Pakistan.
The council members are proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish in the two short years they’ve been at the university.
“I actually think that the University spends too much money on non-academic enrichment, so it’s really important to me to know that the funds allocated to my class for university-sponsored social events are being used wisely,” said council member Katie Deane ’13. “I’ve really enjoyed the events that the council has sponsored so far, but I think it could be cool to have some more interactive activities, too, like the cookie-decorating we had last year. I think we should take inspiration from activities like the collaging station set up by the Davison Art Center, which had collaging at their Decadent Desserts event last spring.”
Looking ahead, the Class of 2013 Student Council is already in the process of coming up with new ideas for this academic year. Among them is an effort to try and stay in touch with juniors studying abroad.
“Dean Brown has been working on a website where students can check in and share photos and talk about how their programs are going,” Yim said. “The important thing is keeping in touch because it’s such an odd year for juniors, where a lot of them are abroad and then another chunk leave in the spring.”
Brown said she has enjoyed her role working and brainstorming with the council.
“The Council started off the year co-sponsoring The Third Year Yard Party with the CAs from HiRise and LoRose and what’s next on their slate remains to be seen,” she said.