Student Body Co-Presidential Primaries
Student Body Co-Presidential Primaries-Eggy Fettuccine
The primary season is well underway for the 2020-21 school year here at Western Reserve Academy, and the candidates for student body co-president are working hard.
Wood House, the first-in-the-school caucus, held its primary in early February. Individual suites served as caucusing locations for Wood House residents. There were two rounds of voting. Candidates who did not meet a certain threshold were barred from the second and final round of voting. After Canvas crashed with too many people trying to upload their caucus’s results, caucus workers were forced to run down paper tallies to Mr. Warner in the common room. David Gentile narrowly squeaked out a victory over Josh Pethel, though the margin was extremely close.
Over the years, many people have criticized the Student Life Office for allowing Wood House to retain its first-in-the-school caucus status, arguing it is not representative of the student body. The same is said for Ells 3rd, which is the first-in-the-school primary. Critics say more diverse dorms like the A should be moved sooner, so as to allow a wider range of people to cast their votes at such a critical moment. It remains to be seen what will happen.
Super Tuesday spelled the death of many candidates. After Omar Al-Asaad’s sweep in the A, both David Gentile and Brooke Ashley dropped out of the race and endorsed Omar, calling him “the leader we need.” Josh Pethel suffered on Super Tuesday, which seemed to offer Omar a clear path to the nomination, but is currently refusing to drop out, even though his prospects look grim. There was so much speculation about his campaign that he had to make a Morning Meeting announcement to explain that he was still staying in.
Only time will tell who will get the nomination, but one thing is for sure: Morning Meetings next year will certainly be interesting.
The Reserve Record 