New StuCo Board Looks To Future, Discusses Goals
Following the election of the Student Council (StuCo) Executive Board, the newly selected candidates have begun their tenure as the President, Vice President and Secretary. Uppers Jackson Parrell, Timothy Han and lower Elizabeth Yang were chosen to fill these positions, respectively. As the newly elected candidates step into their positions, StuCo will focus on improving student life as the school year comes to a close, with an emphasis on class activities like food trucks and grade-wide survivor games.
“Doing anything that the petition was suggesting was outside the bounds of the fair play that was outlined in the constitution.”
The new Executive Board said that its first goal for the 2017-2018 school year is to reform the Academy’s current visitations policy. Following a report by the Committee on Policy, Student Council released their proposed visitations policy, which was written in collaboration with key members of faculty and dorm life. The proposal aims to remove the heteronormative aspects of the current visitations policy, with the intention of creating a more inclusive, safe campus culture. “We aim to create a policy, based on trust, that allows students to build healthy relationships with their peers,” the proposal states, “especially given the recent changes regarding gendered housing.”
Another of the new board’s key objectives is that of addressing racial inequity within the student body, which was one of the most discussed topics in the recent executive election. In pursuit of this goal, a Committee on Community, Equity and Diversity will be established in collaboration with ALES and other campus affinity groups. “This committee will work with the new Director of Community, Equity and Diversity to create policy that promotes inclusivity in every facet of Exeter life,” the board said in an official statement to The Exonian.
The Executive Board elections saw an unusually high voter turnout with multiple extremely qualified candidates vying for only a few positions. “It is unfortunate that there are only three positions, but this board would greatly appreciate and welcome the contributions of every candidate in Student Council next year,” the board said.
In addition to the election of the three executive members, each grade has either completed or is in the process of electing class representatives. Due to the unusually high number of candidates who qualified for position of lower representative, and the high voter turnout, the election essentially came to a tie between seven candidates—Jinwoo Kang, Eman Noraga, Audrey Vanderslice, Charlie Venci, Andrew Sun, Ryan Xie and Billy Menken. On Friday, a final election was held to select three candidates to fill the positions in which Kang, Vanderslice, and Menken were ultimately chosen.
The senior class recently elected three class officials, electing Seniors Taylor Walshe as Class President, Winslow MacDonald as Vice President and Dara Okeremi as Treasurer. The senior class officials will be focused on ensuring a high quality of student life for the class of 2018 in their last year at the Academy. MacDonald outlined the three major goals for the newly elected trio. “We plan on continuing planning class activities and tournaments that help bond our class. Finally, we hope to work on alumni networking,” he said.
MacDonald emphasized the importance of transparency and communication with the senior class. “By creating polls and surveys, we can accurately gauge how our class feels about certain issues,” he said. “By frequently meeting with each other, Taylor, Dara and I can help ensure that our plans are successfully implemented.” He also said that the incoming officials will be working with current upper representatives to prepare for their positions next year.
While upper rep elections also recently occurred, the process was slightly different this year. Six candidates submitted signatures to run for the positions, but only three had enough signatures to run. This caused some controversy within the current lower class, as it rendered voting ballots essentially meaningless, with three candidates qualifying for three positions. A small number of students in the lower class drew up a petition to have the date for submission of signatures pushed a little farther, so as to ensure that more candidates were able to run for the positions. The petition was signed by members of the lower class who agreed with the reasoning and it was presented to faculty, who decided that the original process was the most fair one. The original ruling was upheld.
Health Instructor Carol Cahalane was one of the faculty members involved in the decision. “Doing anything that the petition was suggesting was outside the bounds of the fair play that was outlined in the constitution,” she explained. “Every person in the class was notified at the same time, with ample notice, as prescribed in the constitution, as we’ve done for decades.” She went on to explain that it was explicitly suggested that students interested in running for the positions get additional signatures. “Every person had the opportunity to collect signatures if they wanted to, and every person was clearly warned that they probably should collect extra signatures,” she said. With the rules upheld, Adrian Venzon, Michaela Phan and Samantha Resnick were elected the 2017-2018 school year upper representatives.