How should leaders be selected?

[Grim Tuesday]

I was reading through the Patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism in robotics thread and came upon this post by Akash. I think the topic sparks a very interesting discussion but we shouldn't be having it in her thread.

How should student leaders be selected? Democracy by the students? Committee of mentors? Democracy by the mentors and students?


Let's not let this become a rehash of the classic 'mentors touching robots = bad' thread.