By Arielle Maxner

Head Prefects Rishi Bagrodia ’12 and Brooke Levin ’12 proposed that all teachers schedule mandatory five-minute meetings with their students in the first few weeks of the year, at the most recent Faculty Academic Committee meeting.

The idea aims to establish good student-teacher relationships, making students feel more comfortable asking questions, requesting extensions or simply chatting, Levin said.

“This is an opportunity for students and teachers to get to know one another personally, so a teacher can understand that a student has a lot on their plate, and specifically what extracurriculars the students might be involved in and how this might add to their stress load,” Levin said.

“Harvard-Westlake prides itself on student-teacher relationships,” Bagrodia said. “Why not let the students know that we have this great resource and can use it?”

Bagrodia and Levin said they think requiring meetings would be beneficial by raising awareness of how open teachers are to talking to students, they said.

“I think meeting with and getting to know teachers is very important, especially at the beginning of the year,” Josh Lappen ’13 said. “If meetings were made mandatory, considering the number of students each teacher has, though, they would be short, forced and pointless. If teachers themselves decide to hold these meetings, though, I’m all for it.”