Election Season Begins for StuCo
As uppers Alice Ju and TJ Hodges face off in the upcoming elections for Student Council (StuCo) president, students across campus are debating the merits of the candidates for the Executive Board and the role of social media in campus political campaigns.
The exiting 2012-2013 StuCo Executive Board is composed of President senior Max Freedman, Vice President senior Joon Yang, and Secretary Ju. Candidates for president are Hodges and Ju. Candidates for vice president are lower Scott Heston, lower Emily Lemmerman and uppers Lloyd Feng, Joohwan Kim, and Leo Liautaud. Candidates for secretary are lowers Margaret Zhu and Benj Cohen.
The faculty advisors to StuCo will assist the elections committee regarding matters of timing various elections. Preliminary vice president elections will occur this Tuesday in the Academy Center. Final elections for president will be held on May 7. Science instructor Beth O’Grady said, "The election for the Executive Board occurs first, then the election for the class representatives and finally the elections for dorm representatives. These elections should not overlap."
She added that advisors have an active role once the voting is done, adding that "the advisors are also present and involved in the vote counting."
StuCo president senior Max Freedman said that based upon his experience on the executive board, candidates’ personal traits and the diligence of their previous work on student council would dictate how he voted. He said, "When I am presented with the candidate's platforms, I will be considering a few factors--namely, their past leadership experience within Council, initiative taken on work within Council, a coherent platform, and some plans for achieving goals."
Other members of the student body cited that a diverse range of factors that would contribute to their voting patterns when electing candidates.
Upper Jack Bright said that a candidate’s leadership abilities and previous experience would be the most important qualities to consider. "The candidates should obviously be a figure we can trust to run this school for us, but my vote will go toward the candidate who is most prepared for the job and who has the skill set to lead the students," he said. "A student council president is a representative of the students. Their job should be to argue with the faculty and staff instead of focusing so much of their campaigns by arguing with the students."
On the other hand, prep Tom Appleton felt that executive board members’ personal qualities were a good indicator of their effectiveness in the various positions. He said, "I look for similar things in a president, vice president, or secretary. This is a mutual sense of being connected with the student body. To name some words that come to mind when I think of a student council leader, I think of leadership, honesty and being personable and fun with the student body.
Freedman explained his winning campaigning strategy for last year’s elections. "I ran on a platform of more and better weekend events through collaboration with Student Activities including reinstating Boston buses, and I highlighted my leadership experience as Chairman of the Budget Committee," he said.
Lower Yusuke Agata said that the winning candidates would need to distinguish themselves from their opponents by utilizing the advantages of technology and social media to advocate for themselves. "With more and more people using online platforms, and social networking sites, it would be a great mistake for a candidate not use these to advertise their campaign," he said.
However, Bright felt that social media removed the elections from their original intent to better the Academy. "Social networking sites will make the election all about popularity, and I feel that that is not at all what is best for the school," Bright said.
Freedman offered a few words of advice to current candidates. "While posters are important, and the WPEA and ETV debates help, the real clincher was the speech," he said. "The speech is the only time when a candidate is guaranteed a full school audience to disseminate their platform and to convince the student body that they were the right candidate for the job."
O’Grady also advised candidates to evaluate the current state of affairs at the Academy and create campaign platforms that reflect what feasibly could be accomplished by StuCo in one school year. She said, "Look into what StuCo can realistically accomplish is one year and make campaign promises based on that. For example, promising to overhaul dining services or make dormitories co-ed is not realistic. However, working with dining services on new menus and increasing the number of visitation hours is plausible."