Mayoral Interview with 2026 Fall Mayor, Xiuwen Hu
Xiuwen Hu, current mayor of Indian Springs’ Student Government (a.k.a. StudGov), took some time out of his day to meet with me for this written interview. The purpose of this interview is to introduce new students to our student government. StudGov has a long history that ties into this school’s very founding as a school to teach, at the time, only young, white, male students how to practice democracy.
For this interview, I asked five major questions. All responses are as close to verbatim as possible. Any text in parentheses is an addition or clarification to what has been said, and is not Xiuwen’s words, but mine.
1. What does the mayor do?
The mayor–the main thing about the mayor is that it's different from the commissioners. For the mayor, their one role is that they have to work as a leader. I don't like the word supervisor, but I think–give me a second to think of a word–a motivator. The Mayor allows StudGov to do their best to stay organized and on track. I think it's important to have a mayor because leadership as a whole allows the student government to have something to be centered on (I believe he means centered in the way of focus), and I think the mayor is in charge of coordinating this leadership (as in the responsibilities of elected commissioners) so it is possible. Another part of the mayor, of course, is to, as a student, represent (other) students and their interests. Based on these interests, the mayor should, and would, go ahead and advocate for such interests at Springs.
2. What were the biggest goals of your platform?
For context, every semester, those who run for student government put together a list of goals and promises to the student body with the intention to fulfill each to the best of their ability. These are sent out as “platforms” for the student body to go through before voting.
I have a list, but I'm just going to pick out a few that are important for this semester, specifically. Making people aware of StudGov activities by offering information conveniently with public calendars and without the obstacles of confusion and obscurity. The next is keeping StudGov efficient and true to its promises. The final big promise is having awareness of the student government budget, as a lot of decisions are stunted by financial constraints. I want to make it clear how students can best use resources available to them.
3. What are the changes you have already begun to set up for this semester?
For paragraph 2, context: Student Government, during their meetings, are supposed to start off by explaining what they have started working on from their platform. This often takes up a lot of time that could otherwise be used for immediate student government decisions.
One of the things I have started to set up is budget awareness. I am very grateful for Mr. Colvin, as he has given us a clear budget to help us handle budget requests as well as to see if we have enough (money) for what we are doing. Another change that's in place is that we are trying to incorporate student opinion on major school policies, especially the phone policy. We are trying to get student input to StudGov and act as a bridge between student intention and faculty intention. As mentioned earlier, we are setting up a calendar for StudGov.
Efficiency–check-ins are not weekly. We are trying out a system that allows commissioners to explain everything they do in a Google Doc without a verbal check-in during StudGov to save time. We have been keeping StudGov meetings on time. We reverted the StudGov meeting time back to 3:30-4:00, which has been going well for attendance, energy, and atmosphere for discussion (as opposed to last year’s meeting time of 8:00-8:50 am).
4. What is the role of secretary?
The role of secretary is to provide notes that tell students what is going on in both StudGov and Town Hall meetings. This role is taken up by underclassmen because it brings in younger students to understand how StudGov and commissionerships work. It is also very important to the student government as a whole, I would say, because it allows for clear recording of information so we may reference future plans and past discussions.
5. What can we expect to see in the next few weeks?
Context: The Student Standards are a group of standards that are written and implemented by students, voted on by the student body, and then voted on by the faculty. This is different from the Read N’ Heed, as the Student Standards are upheld by students rather than faculty; it is up to students to write records and hold each other accountable rather than relying solely on faculty. For example, the Student Standards state that there is a four-person limit in the library side rooms, as well as a closed-toe shoe policy in the gymnasium.
I think we're going to have more in-depth conversations about the phone policy, and my goal is to roll out the StudGov calendar in the next week or so. It's good for people to know where and when they are.
My goal is to finalize new Student Standards for changes to the budget, as well as to omit any redundancies in the clauses.
6. Bonus Question: When and where are the StudGov meetings? (to encourage student participation)
Keyser-Samford Community Commons, Dining Hall, private dining room, unless otherwise disclosed, between 3:30 and 4:00 pm.
Xiuwen opted out of further comments.