With the departure of another senior class, the new school year is on the horizon. Finals beckon and the summer calls. Among the end of the year finalities, comes the Student Senate Executive Elections— the yearly renewal of elected leaders on campus.

This year’s ballot consisted of 5 rising juniors and 4 rising seniors.

With five positions, all five juniors were elected. No seniors will be serving on the executive council in the 2019-2020 school year.

Rising senior and executive hopeful Levi Carlisle commented on the election, “The voting system for the executive council elections gave an unfair advantage to incoming juniors. Having the elections towards the end of the year favored the incoming juniors as they have less academic requirements then the incoming seniors giving them more free time to vote.”

James Dempsey, faculty advisor to the Senate, suggests its simply democracy. “Yes, it is interesting.  I think it comes down to the fact that the rising seniors had the least number of votes cast out of all three grades that voted.  Otherwise, maybe there are other considerations at play?”

It’s difficult to fathom exactly why there will be no seniors on executive student leadership next year. Traditionally, leadership at the top is ran by seniors. There is no written code outlining a mandate for senior leadership. But, it usually comes out of the idea of seniors being matured, experienced and knowledgeable about all things Bellarmine. Next year, it will not be the case.

Carlisle further comments, “Having all 5 executive council members being only juniors is not a proper representation of our student body. It hurts the image of the school as being diverse across class lines.” Suggesting a lack of senior representation could skew potential decisions towards a smaller sect of Lions, conscious or not.

Whatever the case may be, it is unprecedented. Dempsey explains, “I do not recall any year where no seniors had zero representation.  It is an anomaly, historically speaking.  I would guess that there may be many factors involved, however, it is an interesting situation.  My hope is that members of the senior class will be able to set aside their own disappointments, so that they can come together to support this leadership team as we move forward.”

The rest of the Senate and Activity Board positions will be determined next fall.