StuCo Announced Primaries Results

By Rishi Gurudevan, Lauren Kim, Sophie Ma, and Catherine Wu

On Friday, Feb. 18, Student Council (StuCo) announced upper Ale Murat as the newly elected StuCo president per the student body’s votes totalled on election day Tuesday, Feb. 15. Murat won a majority vote over runoff candidate upper Aaron Joy in an election with 68% turnout rate. Murat joins uppers vice president Grace Puchalski and co-secretary Nate Puchalski, as well as lower co-secretary Kevin Treehan to serve on the 2022-23 StuCo Executive Board (Exec). Class representative elections, normally held at least three weeks after StuCo Exec elections, may be postponed to after spring break. 

Election Committee co-head and upper Tucker Gibbs describes the campaigning process. “Over the past month, we have run the elections for all four executive board members. The elections for vice president and the two co secretaries are pretty straightforward. Prospective candidates get 350 signatures, they write a candidate statement, and then they’re eligible to be candidates. And then we hold the elections, where we use a single transferable vote for the presidential primary and the rest of the executive board.”

Among the presidential candidates, Azza Uwhubetine decided to go big or go home. “I figured that if I’m gonna run for any position on StuCo, I might as well just run for the biggest one. Exeter always had a very special place in my heart. Now that I’ve been here for three years, I realized there are a lot of things that we can change.”

“One of my big goals is making Exeter the most sex positive place,” Uwhubetine stated. “We can do this very easily by putting condoms in our bathrooms. On top of that, I wanna advertise the Exeter sexual health services that are offered at the health center. For example, did you know that you can get confidentially STD tested at the health center? I feel like as a high school without parents, we should do our best to make it like a sexually safe place.”

“I also wanna move the dining hall times to eight to ten on Saturdays. Did you know that dining hall workers pull up this campus every day at 5:00 AM to get our food ready? It wouldn’t just benefit us but also benefit them; I don’t know about you, but I’m not awake at 7:00 AM on a Saturday.”

Presidential candidate Ale Murat also describes her campaign, and the policies she hopes will help the student body. Murat says, “my campaign is based around leaving a legacy for the people. I want to focus on getting back the projects, the policies and the promises that were made by past executive boards. For example, I was talking to some lowers and they told me that they wanted to see push and pull levers in the bathroom because people don’t like their hands to get dirty in this pandemic.” 

Murat also hopes to bring back traditions on-campus, “ I want to bring back the evening prayer, because that was such an important event from my prep year. I would obviously support more school-wide dances once COVID regulations are lessened. And, in terms of policy bringing back mental health days, passing a visitations policy, and leaving a legacy policy (which ensures that these projects are seen through.)”

Similarly, presidential candidate Minseo Kim shared her experiences and viewpoints while campaigning for Student Council president. “Running for President is definitely competitive and challenging, but I felt I was up to the challenge. First and foremost, I wanted to help students. I care, and I’m honestly not sure how to explain all of these feelings into words of genuinity, but I’m sure actions can speak for themselves, and I’m sure this feeling applies to other candidates and many people as well.”

“I also wanted to make big changes both inside and outside StuCo, and as a figurehead for bringing out big picture changes, becoming President makes it easier to bring about these propositions and help unify StuCo with the student body. I enjoy problem solving and have been part of StuCo for a long time. I’ve worked with many current StuCo members across grades, and from my experiences of running Spring Fling 2021 and other projects, I knew I’d do a great job if I got elected,” Kim continued.

Kim expressed her feelings after presidential runner-ups were announced as well. “I was looking forward to being able to debate and share ideas during the run-offs, but it’s fine that I didn’t make it. There are always other ways, and this isn’t the end of anything. In fact, I learned a lot while running for President, and enjoyed it. I got to talk to more people. My interest grew even more in solving issues we face on campus.”

“Ultimately, I learned from my experiences in running for President and helped bring forth students’ problems and ideas for everyone to think about, and that’s what matters. In the end, everyone’s on the same team. We’re all working to make students’ lives better at Exeter, whether it’s hosting fun socials, making policy changes, striving for financial equity, and making the little joys of everyday possible by problem solving,” Kim added.

Candidates from other positions shared their insights regarding the election as well. “It sounds cliche, but I ran to cause some “change” here,” co-secretary Kevin Treehan said. “The Student Council has so much money and influence at its disposal, but it never seems to know how or for what to use it for. I want to bring actionable and doable policies to the table so we can work together as a school and make life that much better for all of us.”

Treehan discussed some of his future plans as Student Council co-secretary. “I plan to work with the rest of the Exec Board to officialize the OLSConnect app, which is currently available on the App Store that displays your schedule and the d-hall menus… with their support, we can integrate more features and make it into a real hub for campus information”

“Among other things, I’ve been an advocate for reform of Grill. The lack of price tags unnecessarily burdens students with financial constraints, as they may be uncertain as to whether they can afford an item and thus be disincentivized from purchasing it,” Treehan continued.

“Further efforts would include making Grill Points worth a dollar each for more purchasing flexibility, and ensuring that proceeds from the tip jar at the counter goes to Grill employees instead of the endowment fund,” Treehan said.

Vice-president Puchalski describes her policies, which surround more connection within the community. “I ran for Vice President because I am a current cohead of student life, and I have enjoyed some of the changes we have helped make, and I wanted to do bigger things for this community,” she says. “Mainly it was a campaign to “Restore Exeter” to pre-covid conditions. One of my bigger policies was testing at the door to ensure that dances are possible this spring. In general, I plan on bringing spirit, passion, and comradery to the Exeter community.”

Many candidates also commented on their experiences during campaigning.

In terms of the in-person signature collection process for candidates, Gibbs says “compared to the CCC elections where we did it online, this was a lot better. This signature collection process was a return to the standard constitutional process that is tried-and-tested. I think it’s pretty straightforward for candidates to get 350 signatures, especially with D-Hall opening up now.”

Regarding the signature collecting, “Terrifying,” Treehan said. “I thought I was being a real nuisance, interrupting (over 350) people’s meals! Though everyone was nice about it, I wonder if the Elections Committee should examine if there are better ways to gauge support for candidates looking to make a bid.” 

Upper Cam Guthrie, who ran for co-secretary, agreed with the difficulty in getting signatures, but also reflected that it was good representation for his campaign. “It was very difficult because you have to go up to people that you haven’t talked to before and introduce yourself. I think that’s a good thing because it gets your name out there. You get to talk with them about your campaign and policies, which I think is awesome.”

Puchalski says “my experience collecting signatures was a bit stressful at times, but overall it was really amazing to meet some new students and get to chat with a large population of the Exeter community!”

Lower Aavik Wadivkar, another candidate who ran for Student Council co-secretary, had similar experiences. “Signature collecting was quick and efficient, with 400 signatures within 2 days. My 400th signature also happened to be Principal Rawson himself.”

In terms of spreading awareness to their campaign, many candidates used online platforms to connect with students at the Academy. “I did my best to use Instagram to spread awareness of my policies. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take full advantage of the online aspect of campaigning, and I plan to rectify that with any future campaigns,” Wadivkar continued.

 “I usually make some videos that I post on the socials! With kids spending most of their time on phones recently, I’ve found short and engaging videos are the most effective way to communicate goals and plans,” Treehan agreed.

Joy outlined his campaign platform. He planned to establish an organization called Intern PEA, which would have entailed a collaboration between current Exonians and Exonian alumni/ae. Joy described it as “an internship pipeline that seeks to connect students on campus who want internships with alums’ companies​​.”

Joy is also a proponent of ending Saturday classes, as, in his view, an extra “half day ruins mental health in the week before and the week after.”

Joy believes his previous experiences with StuCo will help guide him as president. “Having served as co-secretary for a year, I’ve worked my hardest for the student body, and to enhance life on the daily. I’m running for president to sort of continue that, to take it a step further. That’s what you, I’m trying to bring with these policies that [they’re] really intended to better student life in some really tangible wayson campus and off campus during the summer.”

A supporter of Aaron Joy’s campaign, lower Pippa Pflaum praises Joy’s policy of Wi-Fi on athletics buses, which will be beneficial for athletes who travel long distances to games. “ I think that policy was a really smart call. It’ll make a huge difference with doing homework, as it’s usually a long commute for sports, like two, three, or even six hours on a bus. And if you can’t get work done, it could be a huge waste of time.”

Nonetheless, candidates who were not voted into a position remained supportive and expressed congratulations. “The elections are a big chance to spotlight people, and it made me see how many cool people and personalities there are on campus. I look forward to what the Student Council has in store for us in the future, as well as what everyone as individuals will be doing to make campus and beyond a better place,” Kim said.

Murat concludes with, “I just want to reiterate that this election is not about me. It’s not about Aaron. It’s about you guys. It’s about who can serve your needs the best, whose initiatives are actually achievable in terms of student council, and who has been working day and night nonstop to bettering your student life experience here at Exeter. Honestly, I just hope that people can trust me with their vote, so I can be able to serve the student body in a new way that I’ve been hoping for a really long time.”