Will Ehrlich

Junior Will Ehrlich, a two-time committee head, would adopt a laissez-faire approach as DCA. “I want to be more hands-on in the beginning but then start to back away from it,” Ehrlich said.

According to Ehrlich, his experience heading both the Pride and Model Home Committees has taught him that an overly involved DCA and the centralized power structure of the committee system stifle committee heads’ creativity and engagement. “In the past, the DCAs have been just moderately hands-on throughout the entire process,” Ehrlich said. “Just like riding a bike, you can’t learn if someone is there helping you all the time. You have to push off by yourself, and I would like to work on that.”

Following the impeachment of this year’s Model Home heads, Ehrlich ran and became a head of the committee. One of his primary goals is to obliterate the committee impeachment trend. “I want to make an accountability system,” Ehrlich said. 

DCA and junior Carter Wagner’s approach inspired Ehrlich to introduce his proposed “accountability system,” by which he means frequent communication with committee heads. “One of the best things about Carter was that he was very willing to talk, and he had a bunch of good ideas and he knew what we were doing,” Ehrlich said. “He helped, especially when we were Model Home heads, with the bylaws because they were a mess.”

In spite of the work of Wagner and former DCAs Chad White ‘19, Jalen Benjamin ‘18, and Evan Hughes ‘17, committee event attendance, according to Ehrlich is a major issue. Ehrlich believes that revitalizing committee meetings would indirectly lead to greater attendance. “Before focusing on events, I don’t feel like we’re getting the right attendance at the committee meetings,” Ehrlich said. “I feel like people are blowing off the committee meetings in Student Government, and I think this will help with the events as well.”

Committee events largely have stalled during the quarantine, and the possibility of delayed in-person school could extend the problem into the following school year. “If on-site doesn’t start when it’s supposed to, obviously it’s really hard to hold events,” Ehrlich said. “I would like to FaceTime or put on a group Zoom with each committee head to talk about, ‘hey, what can you do with your committee during this pandemic and even afterward?’”

In addition to leading a FaceTime or Zoom call, if the quarantine spills over into the school year, Ehrlich plans on videotaping himself educating committee members about the role of their respective committees.

Additionally, Ehrlich intends to make his committee grading presentation more entertaining than DCA presentations of the past. According to Ehrlich’s platform, “As a trained stage actor and singer, I would like to think I have quite a knack for performance,” Ehrlich said. “I understand that committee grading sessions can be unappealing and boring. I want to bring more life to these sessions to make it more entertaining for more than just the heads, but also the committee members.”