StuCo Executive Board Candidates Begin Campaigns
The candidates for the 2016-2017 Student Council (StuCo) Executive Board were announced during the weekly StuCo meeting on Tuesday night. Uppers Alejandro Arango, Bella Edo, Mitchell Kirsch, Nicolas LeBlanc, Joel Lotzkar, Hannah Mackay, Emily Robb and Matthew Robbins qualified to run in the election for StuCo president; uppers Richard Chen, Hojoon Kim, Brandon Liu, Melissa Lu and Jena Yun for vice president and lowers Jackson Parell and Taylor Walshe for secretary. Elections will take place on Tuesday April 26—all students are eligible to vote.
As outlined by the StuCo Constitution, the president’s primary responsibility is the operation of the Council and the Executive Board. It is expected that he/she will serve as the liaison between the Council and the student body. He/she has the power to appoint all committee heads as well as veto any motion passed by the majority vote of StuCo. The vice president is responsible for collecting and presenting to the Executive Board any motions, and the secretary is responsible for posting the agenda of each meeting and keeping and filing minutes of meetings.
“I hope the next board will be able to positively impact Exeter in whatever way they see fit.”
The candidates’ platforms differ while also overlapping and continuing past StuCo agendas. During last year’s elections, the topic of mental health came up several times in discussions, but no actual policies have been passed so far this year. As the policy committee investigated, no effective plan exists within policy change at the moment. Despite this, Arango plans to readdress the topic of mental health. While he admits the “bigger issues” are difficult to solve, he thinks smaller preventative policies can be created that would be a step in the right direction. Arango said that he has spoken with professionals in the health center who informed him that his plans were plausible. “For too long, Student Council has tossed aside worrying about mental health and trying to combat the breaking point that some Exonians reach in their time here,” Arango said.
Robbins wants to make the process of creating policy more democratic and efficient. If elected, he plans to cap the amount of select members within StuCo and create a new elected position of “councilors.” These students would have increased voting rights over other members; their jurisdiction would be policy making.
http://theexonian.com/2016/04/21/student-council-presidential-candidates-qa/
After revising the policy process, Robbins then plans to tackle previously discussed issues such as mental health and advising. “The next president needs to be someone who is willing to break the system and explore different means of achieving policy that will make us all better off,” Robbins said. “I believe I can be that president.”
Similarly, Robb plans to use her years of collected skills in debate and StuCo to “revamp” StuCo meetings, making them more discussion-oriented and maximizing their efficiency. She also hopes to increase student participation and will update the StuCo Suggestion Box, sending out all-school surveys and weekly emails that include the StuCo minutes. Lastly, she wants to address issues surrounding mental health. “I strongly believe that starting a conversation about the stigma associated with mental health on campus is a step in the right direction,” Robb said. “I want to be an advocate for my classmates,” she said.
Mackay, on the other hand, plans to present a wide range of new ideas that the StuCo board has not previously discussed. She has five main goals for her platform: Red Racers, Exeter Entrepreneurship, “By the Grace of God” (BGG), Non Sibs and Exeter Eats. Red Racers will be a community biking program where students could borrow bikes with their IDs. With Exeter Entrepreneurship, she plans to host an annual “hack-a-thon and demo day” to showcase student ideas for apps and technology. BBG would be an online platform full of “Exeter hacks” that will help students “survive” Exeter, and similarly, Non Sibs, a committee of StuCo, would work with Admissions on a long-term mentorship program for incoming students. Finally, under Exeter Eats, she hopes to establish discounts for food. “Over the course of my campaign, I will announce partnerships that I have struck on behalf of PEA, and I hope to create a range of deals that clubs can use to better spend their budgets,” Mackay said.
Students are utilizing all sorts of outlets to advertise their campaigns. Kirsch, for example, plans to display his platform and campaign throughout campus and social media like Snapchat.
“If anyone has questions about my platform, please add PEAStuCo on Snapchat to reach me,” Kirsch said.
LeBlanc has taken a unique approach, and has advertised himself as the first candidate to be concerned with “the school’s lack of interest in solving the nation-wide volcano epidemic.” He promised to stop the volcanoes with “unrelenting force and in the most cost effective way possible.” Lower Peyton Weatherbie, however, believes that “the volcano joke” is a ploy to get votes.
While other candidates focused on future ambitions, Lotzkar, who served as StuCo secretary this past year, said that what distinguished his candidacy from the others was his past experience in StuCo. If elected, Lotzkar believes that his experience will equip him to “better represent the student body” and “address any concerns they may have.”
Vice president candidates have likewise shared their propositions in their campaigns. Chen hopes to focus on improving student representation within Student Council. He believed that the members in StuCo “don’t represent the student body” and hopes to implement surveys to send to the entire student body along with StuCo newlettters. “Everyone should have a say in major issues and should be able to state their opinion,” Chen said. “As of right now, students on campus only hear about major issues through word of mouth.”
Fellow candidate Liu, on the other hand, hopes to continue the current board’s work on the visitations policy. “I care about my peers and mentors in our community and value the student voice,” Liu said. He hopes “to continue their work and achieve a more safe and equitable policy for all.”
Secretary candidate Parell expressed similar goals and intends to focus on the ongoing visitations policy change, hoping to work toward a policy that “fosters a more accepting community and maintains in-dorm privacy.” He plans to improve communication on campus. “I believe my campaign is more focused on serious policies that address the issues in the Exeter community,” Parell said.
Walshe, a current lower representative, is running for secretary because he wants “to start making greater contributions.” As secretary, he hopes to increase school spirit at sports games, through a “Game of the Week” program that would highlight a game each week for the student body to attend. “My hope is that the attendance at these highlighted events is boosted, which would then promote school spirit as a whole,” Walshe said.
Current Vice President and senior Jun Park admits that most changes done by Council have been “radical and surprisingly quick changes” such as the dress code and 24/7 access to internet, which have thus belied the true difficulties and hard work behind progressive changes in the school system. “These rapid bursts of progress have made it seem like change is rather quick and easy,” Park said. “However, I hope that Council and future leaders of Council will develop a sense of patience because progress takes time.”
Current President and senior Rebecca Ju mirrored Park’s concerns, expressing hope for the coming board of Student Council and the work ahead for the Academy.
“I’d love to see our Visitations Policy initiative continue, but above all, I hope the next board will be able to positively impact Exeter in whatever way they see fit,” Ju said.