On Monday, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) announced the newly-elected class council members for the Class of 2015 and the Class of 2018. Josh Friedman was elected president of the senior class, and Ned Wang was elected president of the first-year class.
The rest of the senior class council includes Xanthe Demas as vice president, Molly Soloff as treasurer, and Ted Romney and Kyle Wolstencroft as BSG representatives. The Class of 2018 Class Council consists of Jaime Quirante as vice president, Emily Licholai as treasurer, and Kevin Hernandez and Wylie Mao as BSG representatives.
Voter turnout decreased this year, with 74 percent of first years and 66 percent of seniors voting—last year’s turnouts were 82 and 74 percent, respectively.
Both presidents expressed a strong desire to get as much input as possible from their respective classes before tackling any official projects. Friedman and Wang both plan to use this feedback to shape their goals and events for the year.
“It’s really important to get input from the whole class in terms of what they want to see throughout the year so that we can start to get some direction and set goals for ourselves,” said Friedman.
Along with getting input from their peers, the senior class council members are interested in exploring new options and events for Senior Week, both in Brunswick and in the surrounding community.
“We’re committed to creating inclusive and fun events for our class,” said Soloff. “We all joined class council this year with the intention of having an amazing Senior Week.”
While the senior class plans to focus on planning Senior Week and establishing a budget to work with, Wang expressed that he hopes to create a better sense of unity within the Class of 2018.
“My vision for this year is all about shaping the dynamics and getting to know each other,” said Wang. “It’s important to branch out and form a sense of community now, because this year does not happen again.”
Eight candidates ran for first-year class president this year, double the number of candidates that ran last year. Of the 19 candidates for positions on the Class of 2018 Class Council, three were female and 16 were male. Although in past years BSG has released the number of votes counted for each contender, it chose to keep the exact ballot counts confidential for this election.
BSG did report however, that the winner and the fifth runner up of the Class of 2018 presidential election were separated by only 56 votes.
Both class councils have scheduled their first meetings for the coming week, where they will begin the process of setting goals and plans for the year.