Role of Student Government Council in your school

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CaptainZeki

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Hello all,
I am a MS1 at a new medical MD school. My school is in the process of creating a student government council. Elections are next week and I am wanting to run. I have some ideas of what I want to incorporate and push for.
At this time, I want to ask what is the role of student government in your medical schools? Aside from being the bridge to the student body and faculty, what has your student council accomplished? Please share any insight so I can learn more.

Also what are some things you wish your student government council will do?

Thank you!

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At my school, it is essentially a way to placate the students. The student body pretty much has zero leverage to do anything and most people who run for student gov't do so only b/c they know it looks good on their CV. They might be able to lobby for new vending machines or some other trivial occurrences, but there is no authority that lies with the student govt.
 
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Puppets of the administration that have no real influence and just look in the mirror and feel good about themselves.
i.e. basically your impression of your high school student council is a good approximation
 
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Hello all,
I am a MS1 at a new medical MD school. My school is in the process of creating a student government council. Elections are next week and I am wanting to run. I have some ideas of what I want to incorporate and push for.
At this time, I want to ask what is the role of student government in your medical schools? Aside from being the bridge to the student body and faculty, what has your student council accomplished? Please share any insight so I can learn more.

Also what are some things you wish your student government council will do?

Thank you!
Will do? The only things you will do is what admin says you can

you will have increased access to discuss things but you have no power. If you can’t accept no power then don’t run
 
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All the negativity! I was on student council in medical school for all 4 years, and yeah, true we don't have a ton of say in things, and didn't really get to make huge decisions.

However, it was helpful to have a seat at the table in curriculum planning meetings, occasionally something we would say or push for would be heard by administration and a positive change would be made in terms of curriculum. It was also nice to know about major changes and big administrative upheavals before your classmates, and get face time with the people who make decisions in your school. Ultimately it was a generally positive experience, and would recommend it to people looking to go into academic medicine. For what it's worth, most people I was on student council with are now chief residents at their respective programs.
 
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All the negativity! I was on student council in medical school for all 4 years, and yeah, true we don't have a ton of say in things, and didn't really get to make huge decisions.

However, it was helpful to have a seat at the table in curriculum planning meetings, occasionally something we would say or push for would be heard by administration and a positive change would be made in terms of curriculum. It was also nice to know about major changes and big administrative upheavals before your classmates, and get face time with the people who make decisions in your school. Ultimately it was a generally positive experience, and would recommend it to people looking to go into academic medicine. For what it's worth, most people I was on student council with are now chief residents at their respective programs.

Thank you! This was great to hear.

What were some concrete changes you bought about during your time on SC?
 
All the negativity! I was on student council in medical school for all 4 years, and yeah, true we don't have a ton of say in things, and didn't really get to make huge decisions.

However, it was helpful to have a seat at the table in curriculum planning meetings, occasionally something we would say or push for would be heard by administration and a positive change would be made in terms of curriculum. It was also nice to know about major changes and big administrative upheavals before your classmates, and get face time with the people who make decisions in your school. Ultimately it was a generally positive experience, and would recommend it to people looking to go into academic medicine. For what it's worth, most people I was on student council with are now chief residents at their respective programs.

Not gonna lie I'm biased because of the type of people that seem to run for these positions, particularly president. In my life there's a high correlation between running for class president and douchiness and/or a micromanaging personality. Senior year of high school my class had 2 class presidents that ran as co-presidents because both were too afraid to lose and miss out on putting that title on a college resume. What did the student council actually do with the extra man power? No one knows (yes we did keep the vice president position as well).
 
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It looks good on a resume/CV, but aside from that, I can't think of a single meaningful thing my class officers did with regarding to curriculum or administration. They were just a blockade for the discontented and sifted it down for the administration. It's great for the institution to say "pass it on the the SGA counsel" and then do nothing about an issue. The recreational leaders threw some cool events, but that was about it (in covid era, probably out of luck with that anyway).
 
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A good student council finds out how to get the funds and budget for kickin' parties.

Outside of the rare instances, school government is exactly, like they were in college. And exactly like they were in high school.
 
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Thank you! This was great to hear.

What were some concrete changes you bought about during your time on SC?

Small stuff, like small curricular changes, technology improvements, in the clinical rotations one surgical subspecialty rotation was specifically removed because of feedback passed onto student council. We did some worthwhile things. Also threw some great parties.

Wouldn't listen to the naysayers, if you have some interest in medical education or just leadership in general it's great experience, and plus it looks really good on your CV and residency application compared to people who did either nothing or one token research project. Shows programs that you're likable enough to get elected in a general election by your classmates, motivated to actively participate in the improvement process rather than just complain, and reliable enough to stick with something and get things done on a long term basis.
 
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It’s for the do gooder busy bodies that think they’re the voice for change.
 
It’s for the do gooder busy bodies that think they’re the voice for change.

Hey man, people respond well to those who actually try to work within the system to improve things. I get student council isn't for everyone, I'm just saying it has a lot of benefits and is a worthwhile experience in terms of both actual experience and how it looks on your CV. But obviously you do what you need to do, I'm sure persistent negativity is appealing to top residency programs.
 
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Hey man, people respond well to those who actually try to work within the system to improve things. I get student council isn't for everyone, I'm just saying it has a lot of benefits and is a worthwhile experience in terms of both actual experience and how it looks on your CV. But obviously you do what you need to do, I'm sure persistent negativity is appealing to top residency programs.

If you have a valid idea that a lot of your classmates/peers support, take it directly to the dean. Ours makes himself available to students regularly. Other schools may vary, but it would be the mark of a crappy dean to not care what students at his/her institution are concerned about.
 
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I think they sent me emails sometimes about things I didn't go to because I was studying or hanging out in my friends. Once there was ice cream when I was on campus for other reasons and I ate the icecream and said thanks.

I hope this insight into the role of student governments (broadly applicable to high school, college, and medical school) has been helpful.

Less pessimistically, it can be a good vehicle for coordinating volunteerism, research opportunities, interest groups, etc if no such apparatus already exists at your school.
 
Hello all,
I am a MS1 at a new medical MD school. My school is in the process of creating a student government council. Elections are next week and I am wanting to run. I have some ideas of what I want to incorporate and push for.
At this time, I want to ask what is the role of student government in your medical schools? Aside from being the bridge to the student body and faculty, what has your student council accomplished? Please share any insight so I can learn more.

Also what are some things you wish your student government council will do?

Thank you!
I feel as if some of the people here at butthurt about SGA, maybe they just had bad experiences though- so don't hold it against them. SGA at my med school are the ones who take student complaints and tell the higher-ups about it. It has led to changes at times- such as rescheduling a mandatory meeting (which they told us about just 2 days before the event in an already test-filled, stressful, and busy week), we were able to get our scratch paper privileges back for our exams (which was removed by school admin at first), and the generally are our school "cheerleaders/hype men". And other than that- the main thing SGA does is suggest changes to how we experience med school, and the higher-ups take it into consideration as long as we don't ask anything super crazy. I like SGA and it is needed- both for the students to be represented and for the leaders to put that title on their CV or resume.
 
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