Pranav Pillai, current Sergeant-at-arms, is running for Student Council President against current treasurer, Willie Marks. He sat down with The Banner on April 8 to talk with him about his experiences and vision for Harriton.

HB: What is your favorite part of Harriton?

PP: It’s got to be the clubs. I think our extracurriculars define our student body, and for me, it’s Science Olympiad. HTC always puts on the greatest productions, our Girls Lacrosse team is insane — so I think extracurriculars.

HB: Unlike Willie, you are not running with an emphasis on your position inside the current cabinet. Why?

PP: Honestly, the reason I ran for Sergeant-at-arms was to be part of the Student Council council cabinet team. I’ve always wanted to work on student’s rights issues, and my path to that was Sergeant-at-arms. If you look at my campaign last year, it was all about starting your own events and planning your own events, so the title was whatever it was and I did whatever was necessary of the position, but [this time], I’m setting my sights a little higher.

HB: One thing you mentioned in your video was charging stations. Where would these be and how would they be organized?

PP: In terms of the charging stations, the logistics of it is probably the toughest thing and probably the reason we don’t have them right now. The library is definitely [a good place for the stations]. I already talked to Mr. Perrone about whether we can have them there, and he’s cool with that. Where we have printers, there should probably be charging stations, as well as in the alcoves in general.

HB: How could you prevent theft of phones when charging?

PP: We would have locked boxes where you can put your phone and have your charger plugged in.

HB: Who would pay for this?

PP: We have enough money in Student Council to make this happen.

HB: Do you think this is worthwhile?

PP: A lot of my campaign is about things I’ve heard other students might need. My phone might not always die on me, but I know people, especially people who have iPhones, whose phones die more often.

HB: Why don’t students just bring charging cables and plug into their computers?

PP: You tell me. They don’t do it. I don’t know why people don’t do it, but having a charging station mitigates this issue.

HB: What did you do as Sergeant-at-arms?

PP: I did do an Event Planning Form, which was not well publicized. The Ping Pong team used it to organize their tournament, so stuff like that. That was my main thing and a tough thing to get done. At first I had no idea about all the logistics that go into planning an event, but I met with Mr. Ferguson and we figured that out. I also ran Music Fridays, I was chair of the Internal Planning committee, and mostly, I took care of accountability in Student Council. I would sent out reminders, ‘have guys been doing stuff?’, and I would try to send out information about what members could be doing if they weren’t currently doing anything.

HB: How does your experience as Sergeant-at-arms make you the student’s choice for President?

PP: It relates to my experience as a Student Council officer. I’ve sat in on every meeting with Mr. Eveslage, I’ve been to [School] Board meetings, I’ve been to Steering Committee meetings, so I know what it takes to create change.

HB: Your big idea was the extension of RAM. To us, an extension of RAM would mean that school starts earlier, ends later, or the amount of time in each class would be shortened. How can you justify that?

PP: It would be classes being shortened. Before I even considered Free RAM as something on my agenda, I talked to teachers. The teachers I spoke with said that they would be open to taking three or four minutes off their classes for an extended RAM where students have more opportunity to get help for academics or just relax.

HB: How do you envision this new RAM?

PP: Right now, RAM is 25 minutes of me not knowing whether I can relax or whether I should be getting work done. It’s short, so it certainly doesn’t have the weight of an academic class. Its 25 minutes, so in my mind, its useless time and a throwaway. So, for me, it tends to be me sitting next to one kid who is furiously writing, trying to finish a quiz, while the kid of my left is playing Bloons Tower Defense. I don’t know what kind of environment that is.

In contrast, a 50 minute long RAM? Think about that as a free. What do people get done in a free? I think frees are really constructive. I think that you can go in and get help from a teacher, make up a test, or actually get some time to relax. You can watch a video or something like that, maybe even take a nap. It’s 50 minutes. It’s actually useful.

HB: What actions would you have to take?

PP: I’ve already met with Mr. Eveslage about the issue and I’m going to the Board next week or the week after to talk about it. The thing is, they’re definitely changing the schedule. The question isn’t whether or not they’re going to change the schedule, it’s how they’re going to change the schedule. So, there are a couple of proposals out there right now. Regardless of whether I’m elected, I’m going to that Board meeting and I’m going to talk about it. I’ve already written up a proposal for what that free RAM will look like. I’m going to need to get teacher signatures, and I think I’m going to need to take student polls. My case with Mr. Eveslage was pretty strong, but I need data, so that’s going to be my next move — to get data and come prepared to that Board meeting with a stronger proposal and make it happen.

HB: How hard is it to change a schedule?

PP: You could say it is hard. All year long, they’ve been considering different proposals for how the schedule is going to change. They need to accommodate more students in the lunchrooms, that’s one of the biggest issues, so it is hard. And I’m not saying that extended RAM will be next year, but we’re going to try and get a weeklong trial period going, which I’ve already negotiated with Mr. Eveslage. That [the trial period] is either this June or the beginning of September.

HB: What does President do?

PP: He chairs the Students’ Rights committee. He is the voice of the students in terms of administration. Everyone has ideas and the President is there to vocalize them, to write them eloquently, to make them happen.

HB: What does the Student’s Rights committee do?

PP: The Student’s Rights committee is a think-tank. We need to get more student input, and when you have 20 kids who are interested in student’s rights, you’re going to have a lot of ideas. The Student’s Rights committee is there to discuss, debate, and to get a good proposal together.

HB: The President heads the Student’s Rights committee. What is your background in student’s rights?

PP: As a Student Council officer, I sat in on all the meetings with Mr. Eveslage and all that. All the officers did and I think I was probably one of the most vocal officers.

HB: Do you have any ideas for future movement in the topic?

PP: So, today, a lot of people walked into an assembly and I think they were pretty impacted by that assembly. So, we discussed it in physics, how it impacted each person. There were some complaints actually, because some people didn’t think it was super relevant to us. They talked about heroin and overdosing on medications vs. what might be more common at Harriton, like alcohol and pot.

So why is it that administration decided to make us sit in on this assembly and why don’t students get to choose what assemblies we watch. I think we are mature enough to do that. Apparently, there is a distrust between students and administration and I don’t think that should be there. I think students should have more say in terms of what we see during assembly and stuff like that.

To have a better idea, I would have to poll more students. I think most campaigns are running on student’s rights issues, I really do. Whether that’s free WiFi, which goes under student’s rights. There are 1200 students here and everyone has a good idea relating to student’s rights and opinions about what they would change. So, I’m trying to be the candidate who can actually make that change happen.

HB: Why are you qualified to serve as President?

PP: I’ve been a Student Council officer; I know what it takes to create change; I’ve been persuasive enough to do it — in the three weeks since campaigning started, I’ve already been able to make the one week trial period for extended RAM happen. I’m qualified.

HB: How would you lead?

PP: The Student’s Rights committee is one of the most beautiful inventions I can think of — the idea behind it is to take a bunch of kids who are interested in student’s rights issues and put them in a room and say, “Alright, what are you interested in changing? Let’s write a proposal.”

Why isn’t Harriton more like that? It’s not just the kids who filled out an interview and decided to join Student Council, we don’t represent all of Harriton. So, to take Student Council forward, [we need] more student input. I guess that’s a promise a lot of people make, but if that means me going around to a different advisory every A day and asking, ‘What are you guys interested in changing?’ I’ll do it.

HB: How would you lead Student Council itself?

PP: I don’t think that people know what they’re supposed to be doing because there is not that much for them to do. We take so many kids into Student Council, but not that many know what is going on in Student Council. So I would decrease the number of kids in Student Council, but each person would have a bit more personal responsibility. When you feel ownership of something you’re a part of, that’s when you work the hardest on it. I think lowering the number and giving more individual responsibility to people, especially to co-chairs, is important.

HB: How about leading next year’s officers, if you are elected?

PP: Again, I think giving more individual responsibility is important. I’m not going to be like: ‘Vice President, this is how you should run Mr. Harriton.’ But I’ll definitely be there with them. Same with communications — I can’t name an unqualified candidate, so it’s not like I would need to supervise them, but I’m just going to be there and try to help out. I’m not going to lead them, because they’re all leaders, so I think we should work as a collective.

HB: If elected, what will your role be in the context of the School Board?

PP: I think that the proposal that I’m putting together for this meeting will be pretty indicative. I’ll come in as prepared as I can possibly be because I’ll have 20 kids from the Student’s Rights committee telling me what to say and improving my proposal. So, I’ll be pretty active. I’ll go to a lot of meetings and have Harriton’s voice heard.

HB: What fruit best epitomizes you?

PP: I think I would be most like a watermelon. You look at a watermelon and you’re like ‘Okay, it’s kind of round, its exterior is weird and green,’ but on the inside, it tastes really good and it’s completely different when you get to know it.

One might call me a little round, a little nerdy — I got that glasses thing going, but inside, pretty cool.