New and improved: the changing dynamic of Freshman Council elections

September 18 was election day for the freshman class; many students decided to put themselves out there by running for Freshman Council. Posters with fun designs and catchy slogans were put up on the windows of the Sobrato Commons, displaying the candidates’ creativity. Along with their flyers, which were featured on the TV in the commons, their videos were shared in a Google Drive which the freshman class had viewing access to. The timeline for this election process has gone by quickly, with applications opening on August 26 and closing on September 8. 

“I feel really confident, but at the same time I feel nervous,” said Zyrene Bernardo (’29). Many other candidates also felt the same way and were nervous about election day. They shared this sentiment during an all-council meeting on the Tuesday before election day.

“This was a very fun opportunity. Even if I do not win, I still feel lucky to have been able to run and have people that support me,” Hailey Cablayan (’29) shared on election day.

This year, Ms. Grace Savinovich decided to make some changes to how the Freshman Council was going to work. She had decided on an official election, along with the usual applications and interviews; however, after seeing all the candidates, she was impressed by everyone, leading her and Mrs. Lauren Wadors to make a change to the election process.

The two of them introduced a new concept to the student council structure. Instead of only nine students, one for each position, they came up with a co-chair and committee structure. There would be two co-chairs, and each position would now become a committee. In addition to that, the student with the most votes would become the lead of the committee that they were elected for. This structure includes every student who ran, all being sorted into different committees suitable to the interests they displayed during their interviews and applications.

This new idea was announced during a meeting on September 19, which shared the election results with the candidates. The candidates then took an anonymous vote after hearing the two options for the council structure, choosing either the original one, with nine council members, or the committee structure. The result, although not unanimous, was in favor of the committee structure. 

“I’m honestly pretty surprised about the new structure,” said Cablayan, “I didn’t think about that before.” This sentiment was shared among the candidates, who are all now student council members. However, the new council structure for freshmen was met with positivity, mostly about being able to collaborate with more people and the fun of having more friends on council.