To learn more about us and our policies, view this link and visit our website here!

As your Freshman Caucus Co-Presidents, we will vow to faithfully support and represent the needs of all students. We promise to address the individual needs of every student and to equally respect each concern. As freshmen students ourselves, we understand the challenges associated with adjusting to high school in such a challenging environment. Our intention is to make this transition as easy as possible for students. We have devised a series of policies as listed below in order to achieve this goal. 

 

Policies:

Open Communication

Our team plans to hold a weekly zoom meeting to discuss current events, issues, and updates. These meetings will be streamed live for students to view. Once a month, we will hold Q&A over zoom, during which students can present their questions, concerns, and suggestions pertaining to the Freshman class.

For students who are less comfortable speaking publicly over zoom, we will have an ongoing, open google form for students to voice their suggestions. This form will be found easily on our website. We will refer to these suggestions throughout our meetings and work to address every concern of the student body. Finally, our team will send bi-weekly emails to students, updating them of any relevant issues. Whenever necessary, we will send more frequent updates on current events.

 

Facebook and Group Chat Database

As your Freshman Caucus Co-Presidents, one of our first issues will be the creation of a Facebook and group chat database. We have both benefited from having group chats and Facebook groups to talk to classmates about our work in class and develop relationships with our peers. However, we can also relate the struggle many students encounter with not being able to find the group chats for their class or communicating with the Facebook group admin to add them to their group. To solve this problem, we will create a database compiling all of the Freshman class group chats based on class and teacher. This will be easily found on our website with links to each group. We will ensure that the document with these links is password protected so that there are not any security concerns. 

In this section of our website, we will also link any quizlets with important terminology for different classes. Many students use Facebook groups to share these materials, but they only reach a small group of people. We plan to partner with ARISTA to share more of these resources and create materials that are more specific to Freshman teachers.

 

Online Study Groups

Once a week, a member of our cabinet will host a zoom meeting that students can join to do homework and study. During zoom meetings, students will have the opportunity to open breakout rooms for different classes and projects. We have found from experience that school becomes less stressful when you are able to work alongside others. 

 

Homework Policy

We understand many students’ frustrations with teachers not following the new homework policy and will make dedicated efforts to rectify this issue. In efforts to enforce the current homework policy, a google form will be sent out monthly to freshmen, asking students specific questions about their amount of homework.  We will present the results to the administration and contact any teachers that we need to. We want to work with the other caucuses, as well, to help bring this policy to all grade levels.

Moreover, we hope to implement a policy to designate one day at the end of each semester when no homework is assigned. Especially at the end of each semester, with increased testing and projects, students need a day to catch up or study without having to worry about homework assignments. For students’ mental health, as well, we believe that this policy can alleviate a lot of stress and ultimately lead to better performance on exams. Our goal is to, over time, increase the number of days to once every few months, and eventually once a month. We understand, though, that this is a big policy change and one that affects the entire school community. This is why we plan to start slow. We are confident, however, that we will be able to work with the administration to bring this plan to fruition.

 

Lunch Period Re-entry

As we transition into the late fall and winter months, it is becoming increasingly important that students are able to freely exit and enter the school building during their lunch periods. Our proposal is to assign one machine to only entering the building and the other to only exiting. This way students do not have to wait until the last few minutes of the period for the machines to reset to entering the building. We do not believe that this will increase the amount of traffic at the bridge because as it is, most students mainly use one machine and do not exit all at the same time.

We are prepared to work with the administration thoroughly on this issue, as it is a major policy change. We are open to suggestions on how to best implement this change.

 

 

Events:

Book Swap

An event we are very passionate about is implementing book swap events. Prior to the event, students will complete a google form indicating what book they have finished reading or want to donate, as well as the kinds of books they would like to read. Our team will pair them with another student to swap books with. Students will also have the option to just donate books that they have. Other students will have the opportunity to take from this pile and any leftover books will be donated. 

New books can be expensive and we understand the financial limitations that many students face. We hope that this will give students an opportunity to cultivate their love for literature and bond as a community.

 

Movie Night

As a part of our effort to unify the freshman class and foster a sense of community, we hope to host monthly freshman movie nights. We understand the challenges of making friends and finding your place in a new environment. After the COVID 19 pandemic, this issue is more important than ever. To help smoothen this transition into in-person learning, we want to prioritize opportunities for students to get to know one another, the first being movie night. The event will be exclusive to the freshman class, to prioritize building freshman friendships. At many prior SU events, upperclassmen tend to dominate and limit the number of freshmen that can attend. By making the event exclusive to freshmen, we can create a more welcoming environment. At our movie nights, we will play a movie based on popular selection. Students can bring their own snacks and spend time with their friends while they watch. This would be hosted near the end of each semester to give students an opportunity to rest and release some stress before exams. We understand how stressful Stuyvesant can be. Knowing that you are a part of a bigger community can help students feel less alone.