By Deren Kudeki
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Wednesday, April 25, 2007, The OG, news

UNI STUDENTS HAVE elected next year's Student Council executive officers.

Micah Berman, who was unopposed, will serve as executive president in 2007-8. Shara Esbenshade, also unopposed, will serve as secretary/treasurer. In the only contested race, Suran Yoo was elected executive vice president. All three students are members of the Class of 2008.

The voting took place Tuesday.

Here are the biographical statements that each of the winning candidates submitted to Student Council prior to the election:

MICAH BERMAN, executive president

My name is Micah Berman and I am running for executive president of Student Council for the 2007-2008 school year. As president of Student Council, I see my primary responsibilities as: running organized and effective meetings, overseeing all class officers and providing them with tools and guidance to help them in their work, and working with all members of the Uni High community, including the administration, staff, and parents, to make sure Student Council gets the information they need to make successful decisions. Of course, it is Student Council, and I believe that my ties with many students at Uni provide me with an invaluable source of information and input. As president, I would work particularly hard to bridge the divide between officers at different class levels, because a unified decision-making body is always more effective.

My experience on Student Council both my sophomore and junior years (as class president) provided me with the knowledge of how Student Council works that is necessary to be an effective leader. In addition to experience, my dedication to service as well as my good interpersonal and organizational skills will be tools essential to my success as a student leader. I would relish the opportunity to serve you and the rest of the Uni High student body as Student Council president next year. Thank you for your time!

SURAN YOO, executive vice president

My name is Suran Yoo, and I am a junior in the graduating Class of 2008. Although I have no previous experience in Student Council for the executive vice president position, I feel that I have a lot of other advantages to offer to the Uni community.

First of all, I would be willing to take on full responsibility of vice president to serve my school the best that I can. I would be very dedicated and always open to opinions of any student. Having attended Uni for four years, I know very well that constant communication and close connection with other people are essential for any efficient and productive organization, including Student Council.

Secondly, I believe that with little experience also comes no knowledge of boundaries. In the 1970s, Carl Woese unveiled his discovery of an entire new class of living organisms with little expertise in biology. He was able to accomplish this in part because of his creativity and willingness to risk trying new things and experiment. Similarly, Student Council can also branch even further than student decision-making when fresh new ideas are provided. Uni is a small school and offers a lot of freedom that can be harnessed. I would be willing to encourage and produce new activities, and, in addition, address other aspects that could be better from the opinions of the students in the school.

Overall, I strongly believe that I would be an excellent candidate for Student Council executive vice president and would be privileged to help take on the responsibility, along with creative responsibility of Uni.

SHARA ESBENSHADE, executive secretary/treasurer

I am running for executive secretary/treasurer. I have been secretary/treasurer for the Class of 2008 since our sophomore year. I am organized, reliable, and take the activities and projects I am involved in seriously. If elected, my job would be to take minutes at every meeting and send them out to the student body. But if elected I would do more: my best to bring focus and energy to Student Council meetings so that we may adequately address whatever is brought before us. I would make a greater effort to encourage students to go to Student Council with ideas or for funding needs. Start another club! Put on an event! Student Council's role is to provide the funds for student activities, and we should be encouraging such activities, not discouraging them with apathy or stinginess.

As my class's representative, I have worked hard with Micah Berman and [vice president] Ranny Ma over the past two years to put on fun class-bonding events — picnics, capture the flag, movie nights — and recently to put together events for Class Wars and X-Week. We have spent the bulk of our efforts this year on making the 2007 prom the best one yet. I know that the students are teeming with brilliant ideas for school-related clubs and activities, such as using the plots of land between Uni and the gym for gardening. These are the types of activities that I think Student Council should support, and I will take an active role next year in making Student Council an open space for such ideas to surface and be realized. Don't forget to vote Tuesday!

RELATED

— Gargoyle coverage: Meet the candidates: 2007-08 Student Council executive officers