Corr and Schneiderman Elected Freshman Caucus Leaders

Katerina Corr and Jonathan Schneiderman were elected Freshman Caucus President and Vice President on Monday, November 6. The two new student body leaders received 112 votes, defeating their opponents, Eric Han and Noa Morris, who received 60 votes.

Corr and Schneider’s campaign focused on building on the work of previous freshman caucuses and offering solutions to existing issues. They advocated for a locker exchange program for freshmen who were dissatisfied with their locker placement, and for a more organized printing station. In addition, they hoped to implement policies that would allow cellphone usage in the hallways. “[We] tried to talk to as many people as we could [...] the campaign only promised things that we knew were possible,” Corr and Schneider’s campaign manager Talia Kahan said in an e-mail interview. “A lot of the other campaigns were promising things that were never going to happen [like] music in the halls, and this made them look a little bit less reliable.”

Corr and Schneider’s emphasis on creating a pragmatic platform may have swung the election in their favor. “I agreed with the policies of [Corr and Schneider’s] campaign because they could realistically be implemented and weren’t unnecessary or extravagant. [Corr and Schneider] promoted the change I wanted to see for the freshman class,” freshman Julian Giordano said.

Han and Morris’ platform had centered around giving students more opportunities to voice their opinions. One of the campaign’s main proposals was the expansion of homeroom representation in the caucus by designating a representative for each homeroom. Han and Morris also proposed a policy to allow students to review their teachers, but did not have a clear plan for implementation.

The campaign acknowledged that students may have misinterpreted their focus on new issues and new ideas. “Our policies were among the most controversial aspects of the election [...] I [found that] most people [misunderstood] what we meant when we promised those as policies,” Han said in an e-mail interview. “We did not promise [that] they were going to happen. Our promise was that [we would] fight with all of the effort and passion that we could to implement them, because we believe they would best benefit the freshman class.”

Despite the heated exchanges between the supporters of both campaigns on social media, voter turnout for this year was significantly lower than last year. Compared to last year’s turnout of over 300, only 172 people voted in this election. “There's so much voter apathy and it's a problem that's been occurring for years at [Stuyvesant]. We try our best to encourage candidates to promote voting first and foremost before promoting their campaigns, because the truth of the matter is a lack of voting hurts the candidates the most,” Board of Elections co-chair Jennifer Lee said in an e-mail interview.

Regardless of the low turnout, Corr and Schneiderman plan to focus on reform that will help them gain the confidence of the student body. “We aren't concerned with changing the school. We are here to make freshman year as great as possible for the class of '21,” Corr said.