Groton’s Illusion of Representation: Party Planners or Policymakers?

At Groton, student leadership is plentiful. Whether through various clubs or student organizations, Groton students are at the forefront of campus life. However, opportunities for students to drive change, influence decisions, and advocate for their peers are limited. Groton needs a student government that is more connected with our administration while offering more opportunities for students to mobilize change.

Groton’s student government is composed of two Form Officers per form, two House Prefects, and two Senior Prefects. Traditionally, class representatives are advocates for the entire student body before the school’s administration.

At Groton, this is often not the case. In an October 2026 Circle Voice survey, 87.5 percent of students who responded did not consider themselves involved with student government. Furthermore, students are discontented with such limited presence, as 72.5 percent of our student body rates Groton’s current form of student government a five or below on a scale of 1–10.

While Form Officers are, by title, representatives of their form, the opposite is closer to the truth. Information travels from the deans, then through the Form Officers, and finally to the wider student population. Consequently, student leaders at Groton are effectively representatives of the school administration rather than the student body. In fact, several responses indicated an unawareness that Groton even has a student government.

Numerous survey responses expressed desire for “more student-faculty communication” as well as “more involvement” and “larger access” to student government. Currently, the majority of student communication with Form Officers is focused on planning social events. Expanding our current format to allow student advocacy effectively maximizes student voices and reflects student desires.

For an example of what a reformed system of student government at Groton could look like, we need not look further than across the town. At Lawrence Academy, student government consists of five parts: an Executive Board, a Faculty-Student senate, a Judiciary Council, Senior Class Officers, and Class Representatives, all who must win an election. LA’s Judiciary Council is equivalent to our Disciplinary Committee board (with the difference that you must be elected at LA), and their executive board is equivalent to our Senior and House Prefects.

At LA, class officers are focused on grade-wide concerns, not grade-wide events. Their Faculty-Student senate oversees amendments to the student handbook. Students are encouraged to reach out to members of this committee, making their handbook an evolving document, such as the U.S. Constitution—a key opportunity for those interested in governance. Senior officers form a cabinet, with a treasurer who controls club budgets and creates school spirit merch, as well as a secretary who manages the public meetings of the senate. This more extensive and powerful system at LA serves as an example of a more complete and fulfilling system at a similarly sized school, leaving us wondering why we don’t have one like it.

So, what should we do? Something different, clearly. A majority of respondents to our survey—64 percent—mentioned wanting representatives to have more power as to how we function, and 36 percent of respondents felt Groton doesn’t even have any student government. Respondents mentioned ideas such as “more interaction with deans, faculty, and trustees focused on change.” A system with more opportunities for students, such as LA’s five-part program, coupled with more student involvement in administrative decisions would be ideal.

Representatives voted on by the student body should be in the rooms where handbook and expectation changes, for example, are made. Groton currently has a surplus of people willing to take on a greater role in the functioning of the school, and in fact, our size is very much our strength.

Some adults may argue we are too small for a larger student government. However, more student influence means students are more encouraged to make change because of the directness with which they see change take effect as a result of the size of Groton.

We need a real system of student government, working much more closely with the deans and headmaster to create a feeling many students don't have right now: that students are carefully considered in administrative decisions. This is what serving, what Groton emphasizes in its very own motto, should look like.