Just two weeks ago, the RM community participated in Spirit Week, ending the week with a pep rally, and bringing back classic events such as “anything but a backpack day,” which gave students an opportunity to show off their school spirit and support the sports teams. However, many students feel that SGA’s initiatives are lacking in creating and encouraging school spirit.
School spirit is one of RM’s weaker qualities, with a noticeable lack of participation in spirit weeks and other similar events. Many students skip pep rallies altogether. “People are just excited for the pep rally because they don’t have to do work. They don’t have school spirit,” said sophomore Chloe D’Arpino.
There are many factors that contribute to the lack of school spirit among the community. “I personally think that one of the reasons we lack school spirit might be because of the stress of school. I understand a lot of students when asked why they aren’t participating in school spirit weeks for example, or not attending school spirit events is just because they have homework or are just studying for the next upcoming tests,” sophomore and vice president Kimberly Lee said. “And I think that the stress of school is preventing a lot of kids from wanting to participate in the school spirit weeks simply because they don’t have the energy to care.”
Moreover, there seems to be a disconnect between the SGA and RM community outside just promotion. Although the SGA is intended to represent and reflect the student body, the SGA is out of touch in how it responds to feedback from the students. Spirit weeks and pep rallies have remained unchanged over the years, despite a decreasing trend in participation.
Regardless of the reason, the SGA can do more to bolster RM pride, such as increasing the promotion of events and activities. Although social media is a convenient and useful way to spread information, many students either do not have social media or do not follow SGA related accounts.
“Ensuring that we send out the spirit week reminders through other ways such as emails or other forms of communications can allow more students to participate in school spirit. And just in general, just hyping up the school’s spirit week or any school spirit related events, I think is how we’re going to be able to garner more attention towards these events,” Lee said.
If communication between SGA and the student body is improved through better advertisements and surveys, then the SGA could accurately deduce why school pride is declining and develop how to respond. In addition, increasing the frequency of events like pep rallies could give more opportunities to restore spirit and give clubs and teams to show off their skills.
“Having school spirit fosters a sense of community within our school…I think it creates an environment that’s more fun and open and free,” Lee said. “I think that by increasing our school spirit, we will be able to create a better community within RM.”
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