The badge cannot answer

An original imagined speech by a new student representative.

This morning, I was given a badge and congratulated on becoming a voice for students. The badge is excellent at staying on my blazer. Its performance in every other part of the job remains untested.

A voice for other people can easily become a voice instead of them. I can arrive at a meeting with a well-polished opinion and mistake its shine for permission to speak on everyone's behalf. The title will not tell me whose question I have forgotten to ask.

So I want to begin with listening that leaves a trace. Tell us what is difficult, and we should record the point, explain what we can raise and return with the answer. A suggestion placed in a box should not enter a smaller version of a black hole.

There will be requests we cannot fulfil and disagreements we cannot turn into a single cheerful sentence. Saying that honestly is part of representation. Promising every answer in advance would make a splendid speech and a very poor next term.

Judge us by whether a concern can travel through the process and come back with a response someone can understand. Ask what happened to the quiet question, not only who stood beside the microphone.

I am pleased to wear the badge. I hope, by the end of the year, that pleasure will rest on more than its ability to catch the light.

Examine the methods the speaker uses to define responsible student representation.