In an interview with The Urban Legend, Bella Hildebrand ‘23, Student Committee (StuCo) secretary during the 2022-2023 academic year, compared the job of secretary to that of the co-presidents. “It’s basically the role of the co-president, but you were elected through StuCo rather than through the general [student] body,” she said. But to what extent are the secretary’s contributions acknowledged or understood by students?
The role of secretary in the StuCo is established in Article Four of the StuCo constitution. The article states, “At the mid-term of the Spring Term, the Student Committee shall choose a new secretary who must have served at least one previous year as a member of the Student Committee.”
According to the same article, the responsibilities of the secretary include taking meeting notes, writing agendas and sending emails. Despite being a high-commitment leadership role, some students may not recognize what the secretary contributes to the student body.
Like the co-presidents, the secretary is responsible for leading subcommittees at StuCo meetings and planning school-wide events. They also attend weekly StuCo executive team meetings with Dean of Student Activities Skyler Silverman and Assistant Head for Student Life Charlotte Worsley.
Despite this, some feel that the secretary’s work often remains out of sight. “It’s not a position that garners a lot of recognition,” said Stella Reynaga ‘24, this year’s StuCo secretary. “[When] an event happens, … there’s no ‘Oh my God, the secretary must have sent so many emails to do this.’”
Current StuCo Co-President Alex Yang agreed that the secretary is often under-recognized in comparison to the co-presidents.
“Being co-president is definitely a lot less work than secretary,” said Yang. “When the co-presidents want to do some event, … the secretary really goes into the nitty gritty of figuring out available dates and budgeting. [But they] don’t get as much recognition as they deserve.”
Reynaga also noted that there is a gender discrepancy between students who have served as secretaries and students who have served as co-presidents. “In my time at Urban, I don’t recall there being a secretary who was not female-identifying,” she said.
Outside of Urban, companies looking to hire for secretary, receptionist and other organizational positions often receive applicant pools with disproportionately more female- than male-identifying applicants, according to an article from The Guardian. The same trend appears in the StuCo secretary role, for which none of the 10 most recent applicants have been male-identifying.
“A lot of [secretaries] have been the only female-identifying person on the [StuCo] executive team,” said Reynaga. “There’s an interesting interplay of traditional gender dynamics that can be present at times — especially if you have two male students as the dominant co-president figures.”
Students applying for the role of secretary are required to have at least one year of experience serving on StuCo, while those running for co-president have no prerequisite requirement. “I think it’s a perk … that there isn’t a lot of gatekeeping around the co-president position. Anyone can go for it and anyone can get it,” said Silverman.
As a result, the secretary’s responsibilities can depend on the amount of previous StuCo experience the co-presidents have.
“It was a very demanding role, at least my year, because the two co-presidents had never been on StuCo before,” said Hildebrand. “So I ended up having to do a lot more of the work, just because they were unfamiliar.”
The workload and lack of recognition can be challenges for the secretary throughout their term. “At times, I do think [my work] is taken for granted,” said Reynaga. “There starts to be this point of being burned out. … It’s kind of hard to feel like the whole weight of organizational responsibilities is on you.”
