When one is making decisions with the aim of developing or strengthening policies, they have to keep in mind the people who are likely to be affected by the decisions. Bringing everyone onboard when making decisions is a means of acknowledging that everyone’s opinion matters. It reduces the friction between the people making the decisions, and the individuals who are supposed to put them into action. The idea of representation is borne out of the need to have someone who can represent others because having thousands of share their view, one person at a time, can be a tedious task and it can be time consuming. This is the reason why countries have governments representing the interests of their people.
The idea of student representation only emerged during the civil rights movements because prior to the emergence of this idea, the educators and board members were responsible of making decisions on issues that directly affected students. Students were hardly involved in the decision-making processes, and sidelining them would sometimes lead to situations in which their needs are not addressed. For example, raising of the tuition fees without engaging students is an example of the decisions that most students may not receive positively. In the history of some universities, raising fees or making certain decisions without involving students have been met with anger, disbelief and protests.
The student representatives or student leaders play vital role when it comes to representing the interests of their colleagues. University students, each year, get the opportunity to elect their favorite representatives. These representatives are responsible of addressing students’ grievances and they are the link between administrators and students. The Student Representative Council (SRC) plays a vital role when it comes to giving students the platform where they can voice their concerns. The SRC, in addition, presents the students’ views to the administration so that the latter can take necessary measures to support students.
Almost every university has a SRC, and although each is unique to each university, they serve the same purpose of representing the interests of students. 13 of the Harvard’s upperclassman houses are all the constituents of the university’s SRC. Columbia also has a SRC, which advocates for the interests of the students. The idea of the students having their peers represent them, therefore, is a good idea because it creates a contact between the students and members of the student administration.