This semester, ASG introduced a new announcement system that changed a traditional part of advisory for students. What was originally a student voice over the intercom in the last few minutes of the advisory period is now a slideshow presentation and video. The new system presents school announcements visually—teachers play a slideshow at the front of the class during the beginning of advisory period for students to see. Additionally, through social media such as Irvington’s YouTube channel, students also have access to the Morning Show, which is filmed by the Associated Student Government (ASG) at the start of each week and recaps recent student events while providing an overview of upcoming events.
The decision to modify the intercom announcement format rested with ASG’s Public Relations Committee. The committee is led by Executive Officer Amna Rahman (11), as well as Activities Director Mr. Willer. “One thing we realized is that with the loudspeaker, a lot of students tend to tune out of the daily announcements instead of listening,” said Rahman regarding the committee’s motivation for the change. “Clubs weren’t submitting requests for announcements either, because they themselves felt that it wasn’t as effective as just posting on their own social media accounts.” Prior to the implementation, the committee also collected feedback from teachers and students on the previous years’ Morning Shows and their capacity to engage and inform students about on-school activities.
Members of ASG believe that the announcement system is a key opportunity to close communication gaps on campus and make on-site happenings more visible to the student body. ”Irvington is such a diverse school where most students and even teachers are not aware of all the amazing things that happen on this campus,” said Mr. Willer. “Now we have a vehicle to share those stories firsthand rather than a simple tag line voiceover the intercom.” Some students share a similar positive outlook. “The intercom system was sometimes not that clear,” said Devjot Singh (11). “Sometimes you couldn’t understand the speaker if they talked too fast, or if their voice was too high or low. The slideshow system is easier because there’s no ambiguity — you can just read the words.”
Despite the relative novelty of the implementation, ASG has observed some evidence that it is making a difference. More clubs have begun submitting announcement forms, and some have reported increased attendance when their events were announced in the morning show as well. Additionally, there have also been more students from the populace reaching out to leadership to learn about school events featured in the morning show.
The slideshow format has run into problems, however, as some teachers have not been displaying them during advisory. For these teachers, it’s often because of technical issues or not knowing about the system. To combat this, the Public Relations Committee is working to ensure schoolwide access to information. “Quite recently, we visited teachers who are newer to the school, who may not be familiar with our system or aren’t receiving emails,” said Rahman. “We checked in with them, made sure they knew how the morning show works and how to play it. We’re continuing these visits, and while it’s hard to reach every teacher, we’re slowly making progress.”
Looking ahead, ASG plans to continue refining the system throughout the rest of the school year using the feedback it’s received. “This is a never-ending process,” says Mr. Willer, “but one of the advantages of our new system is also that we now have engagement data from our announcements we can use in the future to continue improving.”
