Big Changes to the Big Sib Program

Big Sib Chairs Leila Storkamp, Kevin Li, Charlotte Ruhl, Max Onderdonk, and Aren Tucker sat down with faculty to discuss the program’s new bylaws and their content on January 11, 2018. The chairs worked with Principal Eric Contreras, Rodda John (’17), and the newly established faculty oversight committee, consisting of Assistant Principal of Pupil Personnel Services Casey Pedrick and various other faculty members. The changes now establish the process by which Big Sib Chairs, members, and homeroom leaders are chosen, along with the procedure for dismissing members, should the need arise.

The Big Sib program for Stuyvesant was created in 1997, and aims to help underclassmen adjust and familiarize themselves with Stuyvesant’s community by providing mentors for the 850 incoming freshmen. The 150 members, or “Big Sibs,” offer support and advice regarding school work and the Stuyvesant lifestyle. “I often refer to our Big Sibs as being mini counselors to our freshmen,” Pedrick said. “It is very complementary to the work of our counseling department.” The Big Sib Program also organizes events such as homeroom picnics, Stuy Camp, and the Big Sib-Little Sib Dance to help underclassmen acquaint themselves with peers.

The biggest change to the bylaws is laying out formal procedures and therefore legitimizing the program. Previously, the Big Sib Program only had a Code of Conduct that new Big Sibs were required to sign, so this new change was a large step in development for the program.

The need for change was inspired last school year when the ARISTA executive board re-evaluated their own bylaws. “When the ARISTA executive board from the 2016-17 school year was revisiting their bylaws, it was in discussions with members of their executive board that we started thinking: ‘Wow, [the Big Sib program doesn’t] have those either, and we are very similar in size and mission to ARISTA,’” Pedrick said.

In addition, sparked by the temporary removal of a Big Sib Chair last year due to inappropriate comments online, the Big Sib bylaws now include strict guidelines for what will occur during the removal of a chair. “In a removal there will be hearings so that [the Big Sib Chair] can present their side. In the worst possible scenario, if there is a removal of a chair, the process is more efficient,” Storkamp continued. “Going forward we wanted to establish a better way of dealing with circumstances if they may come about.”

The new bylaws are also designed to help prevent such a situation from occurring in the first place. The regulations inform Big Sibs of their responsibilities and obligations in a way that eliminates misunderstandings. “Let’s say someone does something that could cause them to possibly be dismissed. That person is probably going to definitely want to know, ‘What [do] the bylaws say?’ So it lets them know that there are expectations for grade point, that you may be removed for any violations of the code of conduct,” Pedrick said.

Additionally, these new regulations strengthen the Big Sib Program’s relations with guidance, as both programs help incoming freshmen smoothly transition. “Communication between Big Sib Chairs and guidance is more direct, because at the end of the day guidance [plays] a very important role,” Storkamp said. During the application process for future Big Sib Chairs, two faculty members will now be present at every interview. “They can see this process directly rather than just hearing from us who we think is good,” Storkamp said. “Adults might offer some points that we may have missed from interviews.”

In terms of the appointment of the Big Sib chairs themselves, only one faculty member sat in on every Big Sib chair interview. “We decided [...] that two faculty members would be in each of the Big Sib chair interviews so that we would be able to have a better, in-depth discussion about a candidate, rather than just having one person’s opinion,” Pedrick revealed. “Our hope there is that we can choose some really good leaders for the program, and put trust in them to choose fairly for the actual members at large.”

These changes are the most recent in a wave of reform for the program. There have been changes to the Big Sib Program in the past, such as when they lowered the required average from an 88 to an 85, allowing more students to apply. According to Storkamp, “It’s helpful for students who may have had a rough freshman year, but are working hard to improve their grades. They can still be a role model to other freshmen; they just might have had some bumps along the way.”

With these new bylaws, future amendments to the program and its bylaws will be standardized—when coming to a decision, all members of the oversight faculty committee must approve of the change, along with a majority of the chairs. “You’re always learning and growing and rolling with the times and deciding what the organization needs in this day and age as opposed to before or after,” Pedrick said. “It’s always a good thing to keep things dynamic.”

The Big Sibs are optimistic for the implementation of these new guidelines and the role of the program as a whole at Stuyvesant. .“It’s really good to be able to have the Big Sib organization, which has been around for quite some time, now be as organized and established as say ARISTA or the [Student Union] itself,” Pedrick said.