For the upcoming Field Day on Sept. 21, Student Government has introduced a new system for adviser group games. In order to pair advisories from different grade levels, it will exclude the results of advisory games in the overall scores. The element of competition will be retained, with dress up and class games each representing 50 percent of each grade’s score.

“[StuGov] hopes students can focus on enjoying themselves during Field Day rather than obsessing over points during the advisory games,”  Field Day Head Kenrick Brown (‘20) said. “You should play the games, because they will be fun!”

At first, the Senate held a forum and decided to pair advisories from different grades, while still scoring the results of each game. However, StuGov later vetoed this change because it made the point tracking system mathematically complicated.   

“We really tried hard to comply with the Class Governments’ desire to track points,” StuGov co-president Andrew Xu (‘20) said. “We sat down at the spreadsheets for a few hours, but concluded it would be too difficult to complete.”

Without conducting another meeting, StuGov sent out an email asking the ClassGovs to once again vote on whether to adopt the new scoring system. The vote came down to a draw between the two upperclassman ClassGovs and the two underclassman ClassGovs, until StuGov made the tie-breaking vote to proceed with the changes.

Explaining his ClassGov’s vote, sophomore ClassGov officer Hironori Kondo (‘21) said, “Even if the advisory game effort takes a slight hit, it’s worth giving this change a chance because it will improve unity between grades.”

However, the changes have faced opposition. “StuGov’s goal this year was to create a community, but the removal of points from advisory games will work counter to it,” junior ClassGov officer Dhirpal Shah (‘20) said. “The points allowed everyone in high school to feel they were contributing to their grade, and no more points means there would be no more incentive to participate.”

Ultimately, StuGov hopes students will feel less pressured on Field Day to win, and have fun with their opponents just as much as their teammates. “To StuGov, bridging the gap between students represents an opportunity to build community,” Andrew said. “The changes to advisory games do this, allowing students the opportunity to engage with each other in a fun and relaxed setting.”