Ida B. Wells is a figure known for trailblazing toward a more just society through her leadership. Wells strived to be an effective leader, often through her ability to adapt and evolve in the face of adversity and change. This school year has thrown many challenges to the IBW community, with many changes in our school as a response to the obstacles. The restructuring of the Associated Student Body (ASB) or student government is one of the many cases where IBW adapted to be more effective, just as Wells did throughout her life.
Previously, the positions of the student government consisted of president, vice president, two class representatives per grade, secretary, treasurer, event coordinators, spirit and athletics coordinators and District Student Council (DSC) representatives. Now, the positions of ASB are divided between grades as follows:
Senior roles: Student Body President, events coordinator, communications, two treasurers and spirit and athletics coordinator
Junior roles: Vice President, events coordinator, communications, two vice-treasurers and spirit and athletics coordinator
Sophomore roles: Class representative, events coordinator, communications and spirit and athletics coordinator
Freshman roles: Class representative and a spirit and athletics coordinator
“While this [the ASB structure] may have worked in the past, due to changes of responsibilities in leadership, we had to respond with changes to student government. This means absorbing the responsibilities of class reps, dividing up positions amongst the grades for more expansive student involvement and fine-tuning supports for different positions,” said leadership teacher and activities director, Abby Griffin. “These changes were not made in a vacuum, but with input from existing student government, prior leadership teachers and current administration. We landed with the following roles, some with more than one candidate, for a total of 20 students.”
These changes are looking to create the best experience for both ASB members and IBW students. “What I think is going to be really nice about the change of having more people is, it’s going to be really great to give a delegation of the tasks. For example, I know the event coordinators, now, they each get to work on their own dance. Having it divided gives people more time to focus, and more focus [in general],” said Jade Marotta, the newly elected ASB president and former event coordinator. “What is great for this new face of ASB is they really get to focus in on one thing. I think when it comes to some of the other positions, getting more collaborative minds, for example, in spirit, and more people working on spirit weeks, I think that is going to be really helpful.”
In addition to the new face of ASB, the student government is continuing to evolve by creating a constitution for leadership. This will ensure a standardized outline for how ASB will operate for every new administration. Marotta is one of the writers that is currently working on the constitution.
Leadership has many hopes for what these changes will result in. “Collaboration between grades is my biggest priority; I want to see student government become less ‘exclusive’ and more representative of our student body. With the addition of more team members for finance, I hope to see leadership strengthen transparency about our budget process and where student body funds go. Finally, I hope students can feel like stronger leaders regardless of their grade,” said Griffin.
The restructuring of ASB coincides with the ever-growing presence of student leadership at IBW. “Over the years I’ve seen it definitely build,” said Marotta. “This past year we’ve had the highest attended dances in school history, so it’s showing the incline in school involvement and the connection to leadership.”
The strong student involvement at IBW also plays into our ability to change and grow. Marotta said, “Some other things that have changed are people’s attitudes and the amount of people who want to be a part of it [leadership]. Now I go into the classes and they’re at full capacity and it’s all these kids who are really excited about making a difference in our school. I think the whole involvement not only from leadership students, but also the students outside of school understanding what leadership does, has changed significantly. I think it’s just going to [continue to] improve and it’s going to be really great for our school and our community.”
Leadership is one of the many programs at IBW that evolved and shows the adaptability of the IBW community, often initiated by student action. With this, the IBW community is ever-growing and evolving — all the while working to uphold the legacy of Wells herself.
