2015-16 Student Council Executive Board Elected

On Apr. 18, 550 students came to vote for the final round of Executive Board elections of Student Council (StuCo) as the club prepares for the 2015-2016 school year. Upper Rebecca Ju, upper Jun Park, and lower Joel Lotzkar will serve as next year’s president, vice president, and secretary, respectively. One week prior, in a primary election, Lotzkar had been named secretary and one vice presidential candidate had been eliminated from the field.

Ju’s campaign emphasized a renewed focus on mental health and communications between various on-campus constituencies.

Students, voters and current Executive Board members alike were pleased with the winners; the resulting team is one that was most described as cohesive and likely to work well together. Senior and previous StuCo president Benj Cohen said that they “are three excellent leaders” coming from a “really excellent” group of original candidates.

“I am excited that the school picked [Ju, Park, and Lotzkar],” he added, and explained that he looks forward to seeing them assume their new leaderships positions and take on innovative projects in the fall.

This campaign round was especially unique because of an unexpected candidate, upper Sean Taylor. While Taylor did not initially collect the signatures necessary to run legitimately, he and friends developed a campaign mocking the elections process. Taylor posed as a candidate reminiscent of a communist dictatorship in “propaganda” videos and in posters that were plastered around campus.

His video garnered thousands of views on Taylor’s Facebook timeline, but near the election date, StuCo adviser and health instructor Carol Cahalane sent an email to students explaining that write-in votes—which Taylor and his supporters recommended voters to make use of—would not be counted in the process.

While some were offended by Taylor’s pseudo campaign, he and his friends stressed that it was done for the purpose of humor alone. Upper Sam Kushell said that they wanted to “make [the student body] laugh… We have tried our best to be careful not to offend anybody during the course of the campaign. This was a comedic endeavor, meant merely to parody and satirize, not to be malicious in any way.”

Indeed, the majority of students were amused. His comic posters that called for more opaque conversations surrounding the workings of the school were well-received and few saw them as great detractions from the voting and elections process on the whole.

The process continued as planned and ran smoothly. Support for Ju as next year’s president is high among many. Many praised her listening skills and tendency to place the needs and desires of others before her own.

“I am really excited about [Ju],” Cohen said. While he described her as a quiet leader, he suggested that that trait would serve her well. “She is well-spoken and hardworking… this past year I have been really impressed with all the work she has done with the Rec Committee.” He added that she is also understanding and empathetic, which he expected will help her tackle issues of mental health on campus.

Alice Ju ‘14, StuCo president during the 2013-14 school year and older sister of the newly elected president, placed deep trust in her skills as a leader. Alice Ju praised her sister’s naturally selfless nature; “I’ve seen her give up time or opportunities for herself too many times to recount now… I think Exeter elected someone who is an extremely hard worker and also someone who will apply that work ethic to helping others first,” she said.

Senior Emily Lemmerman, friend of Rebecca Ju and Policy Committee Co-Head, also commended Ju’s selflessness and complete willingness to listen to others without imposing her own agenda. “She will be a really good leader,” Lemmerman said, because she can facilitate and lead discussions by listening to what others want, a quality Lemmerman said is vital in student leadership.

Vice president-elect Park, who looked forward to working with Ju, said that Ju will not only work for easy fixes, but for the “bigger picture” changes she sees as necessary to address the stigma and process of mental health as students encounter it. “I’m definitely going to help her with that,” he said.

However, Park also added that he will be willing to assist with smaller changes, especially those related to the budget or planning events. By taking responsibility for the more minor tasks, Park hopes to clear the way for an efficient and effective tenure of the next Executive Board.

Cohen praised Park, too, not only as an assistant to Ju, but as a leader on his own. “[He] has some pretty awesome leadership skills.” Cohen said that his work on the newly formed assembly committee has shown qualities that display his abilities and promise.

Ju said that she felt lucky to already have a positive working relationship with her vice president. “I know [Park] well from working with him for three years in Mock Trial. I know him so well and I am really excited to be able to already have a great relationship with my VP,” she said.

The new board aims to first address mental health primarily; Ju said that she joined StuCo in the first place to get a chance “to change the school for the better,” and that remains her goal. She said she will stick closely with the plans outlined in her campaign platform to address the issue.

Ju also hoped to work on transparency. Though she acknowledged the fact that the term “began a sort of joke” because of its overuse during the elections, “it is still an important thing.” She outlined a plan to publish more StuCo newsletters, and “provide as many opportunities as possible for students to learn about the health center… have an anonymous feedback system for the counselors, and educate students more about how mental health works and what it is.”

Lemmerman said she is pleased with the team the new board assembles. “It is quite amazing that I really think they’re going to learn to work together,” she said, and explained that because each has both a cooperative and hardworking nature, they will remain close.

Ju praised the quality of each candidate that ran this year. Everyone was “so well qualified… and I was really impressed by the voting turnout too,” which she said attested to the strength of every one. Despite complications surrounding Taylor’s comedic campaign and unpreventable competition among candidates, the election went smoothly and the overwhelming reaction with regards to the newly elected executive board has been positive from the student body.