Nerve-wracking is a term that sums up what it feels like to speak in front of approximately 1,600 students while competing for an officer position in the Student Council.

StuCo elections were held on Wednesday and organized by Leslie Campbell. This year’s elections brought about some fairly common events, such as juniors Lily Colburn and Neely Joyce running unopposed for student body president and vice president.  

“Me and Lily wrote a speech about our goals and stuff for this year and then we rehearsed it a few times and that’s about it, because we were running unopposed,” Joyce said. “I felt really good going into it, I think we are going to have a great year next year with everyone that is on the Student Council. I think the elections went pretty good, I was a little less nervous than I was in past years, but the first time I did it, it was pretty stressful.”

The student body president and vice president is one of, if not the, most senior position available on the student council. The competition for the position varies from year to year.  

“I don’t think running unopposed affected our attitude, we still had the same drive and attitude and dedication to Student Council as we have always had,” Joyce said. “I think it just affected us in how we presented ourselves, but it did feel good knowing we didn’t have to go against anyone else, but that’s the only way it affected us I think. Instead of trying to convince the audience to vote for us, we talked more about our goals since we were their only options. I think we would have campaigned harder and our speech would have been different if we did have competitors.”

Despite Joyce and Colburn running unopposed, they still put a lot of time and thought into outlining their goals for the StuCo program next year. They hope to increase communication between the Freshman Center and West Campus through activities, better communicate what’s going on and be a bigger voice of the students so the student body can voice their concerns and they can share with the administration and hopefully make a change. They weren’t the only ones to run unopposed.

“I had ran all the previous years, so I kinda knew what it was like and knew what to expect, and I think that the most I did was work on my speech but since I was running unopposed the pressure was kind of off,” junior and student body treasurer Olivia Belin said. “I still wanted to make sure the student body knew I took it seriously so I highlighted my dedication to the student council. I think having the experience of running in previous years made the whole thing less stressful because I knew what to expect about StuCo and getting up there and speaking. I felt good after giving my speech. It felt reassuring that it was over because it’s kind of nerve-wracking even though running unopposed took the pressure off.”

The first meet for the new Student Council officers is going to happen sometime within the next week where they will discuss fundraising plans and all the events that StuCo will be organizing for the following year.