Class Reps for 2016-17 Chosen
Student Council Class Representatives for the 2016-2017 school year were elected last Tuesday. Upper Joel Lotzkar will serve as senior class president, alongside upper Charis Edwards as vice president and upper Alejandro Arango as treasurer. Lower Taylor Walshe was elected as one of the upper class representatives, while lowers Michael Bamah, Emily Green and Elly Lee tied for the other two positions. As a result, the three of them will proceed to a runoff election today. Preps Makinrola Orafidiya and Adrian Venzon were elected as lower class representatives, but preps Gillian Quinto and Michaela Phan also tied. The winner will be decided in the runoff election.
Voter turnout was fairly low, with only the prep class having a turnout rate greater than 50 percent—147 of 270 preps voted in the class representative election. The lower class had the next highest turnout rate, 41.5 percent, with 122 of 294 lowers voting. Only 107 of 330 uppers voted, resulting in a turnout rate of 32.4 percent.
“I felt like the race was tough because of all of the candidates’ incredible strengths.”
Lotzkar was joyful upon his election. “I am thrilled and honored to be elected senior class president. I couldn’t be any happier,” he said.
He said he looks forward to his tenure as senior class president. “I am looking forward to working with Charis and Alejandro and we will do our utmost best to plan a fantastic and memorable year for the class of 2017. As senior class president, Lotzkar hopes to design popular gear, host well-liked class events and ensure the planning of a special and unforgettable five-year reunion.
Edwards, too, expressed excitement upon her election to the vice presidency. “I’m thrilled to be vice president, and I’m really optimistic about the representative team that the grade elected. I think we’ll work well together and get things done,” she said.
As vice president, Edwards plans to connect alumni with the senior class and to ensure a smooth transition into alumni status. In addition, she would like to host exciting class events, establish a meaningful class gift and plan class reunions. To do so, she will begin planning early and be in regular communication with the other reps. “I’m pretty persistent when it comes to planning so I’ll follow things through,” Edwards said.
Edwards said that she was particularly excited to connect with her classmates and to preserve bonds upon graduation. “I’m so pumped to keep in touch with everyone and make our reunions happen after grad,” she said.
Arango had mixed emotions accepting his position as treasurer. “I’m both excited and unsure of what the position entails,” he said.
He stressed the importance of cooperation on the part of the senior class representative team in order to achieve their goals. “Above all, diplomacy and working together with the faculty is crucial. We need to start working on what we want to do for the class of 2017 early to get anywhere anytime soon,” he said.
Walshe, who served the class of 2018 last year, said he looks forward to both continuing the events from last year that he thinks went well, while also fixing the ones that didn’t and doing more in general. “There are a few things that I want to continue and other things I want to change,” he said. “We hosted more class events than all the other three classes combined this year, and I hope to continue all these events and some extras next year.”
While many applaud Walshe’s actions as representative this year, Walshe himself hoped to increase general attendance to the class events, which he thinks is easily attainable. “Next year I would like to try and get the attendance rates higher with more advertisement,” he said. “I already have a great connection with the class advisers so it will be easy to work with them on getting things done.”
The three tied candidates will have a runoff election later in the term to determine the other two representatives. Regardless of the outcome, Walshe knows that the three will perform as a cohesive, active team. “I would be happy to work with any of them and am excited to see who will win. I felt like the race was tough because of all of the candidates’ incredible strengths,” he said.
The prep class elected Orafidiya and Venzon, but another runoff election between Quinto and Phan will take place, that will decide who becomes the final representative. Orafidiya commended the campaigns that all of the preps ran, but looked past the election towards the future of his work. In particular, he’s already planning how the three representatives will divide the workload.
For the two preps who will be in the runoff election, they plan to continue their campaigns, making sure that all of the preps know and understand their policies. In particular, Quinto hopes to inform the preps about her plan to encourage creative submissions for class gear.
She said, “We would vote on the article of clothing, then have people submit designs and then vote on those designs. The person whose design wins would get free gear to incentivize submitting.”
Rising StuCo secretary Jackson Parell said that despite the two ties, the elections went smoothly. While the representative decisions are now made, Walshe hopes that StuCo will still use the ideas suggested by the candidates who did not win, as including the voice of the student body is the role of the representatives. “I urge the candidates who did not win in this election to come up to me and the other pending reps to work and make their great platforms a reality,” Walshe said.