Woodside’s Freshman elections held this week hope to bring new campus diversity.
Leslie With, the Student Activities Director, commented on diversity in a few different ways, stating, “Yes, we want to have diversity, but I want diversity also of students middle schools, like where they come from, whereabouts they live”
Evan Farrar, the current senior class president who is also in charge of freshman elections, notes the difference in this years elections.
“There is definitely more diversity in the group of freshman candidates than we have had in the past,”says Farrar. “This is partially due to the fact that we have an extraordinary large number of candidates overall.”
At Woodside, there is more diversity than recognized, unfortunately. In a school where more than 62% of the students are non-white, very few students in past elections have been non-white.
With also made sure to include that diversity to her does not always mean ethnic diversity, insisting that, “ [Woodside officers] have had some mix, but people don’t always recognize it”
Former class president and current chief justice of the Board of Student Affairs (BOSA) Alex Torres, a latina, is one of these exceptions and commented on class election diversity.
“In the past elections I’ve noticed the majority of students that run for a position are white and have a very similar backgrounds,” she commented.
Each year at Woodside is a little different and so is each class especially since there are more options for students when running for office.
Grade levels are a big factor in what kind of students run, says Ms. With, adding that, “Freshman year has a small handful of people who want to run. Sophomore you may not get as many and Junior year you may not get as many and Senior year it really varies because sometimes we get people who run for BOSA, and then the senior officers.”
Despite this trend, student leaders acknowledge that this year’s elections are more diverse than what they’ve seen in years past.
“I’ve noticed that there is a wide variety of students running for office” says Torres, admitting that she is “really excited to see it.”
