By Sarah Metcalf
Throughout Homecoming Week, students were encouraged to vote for their personal choice for king and queen based on the information they had received about the candidates. Not all students are happy with the outcome, however, and some believe that the faculty and administration are playing too big of a role in the voting process.
Last year, the vote was made up of 49 percent students and 51 percent faculty. This year, the vote was changed to even out the percentage at 50/50.
Despite the change in voting ratios, the last two Homecoming Queens have been members of the Student Ambassadors for the Alumni Association. Some feel this is due to their close ties and relationships with the faculty, leading to an advantage over those whose organizations appeal more to the student body.
“They try to hype up the student vote, but in the end it doesn’t really count,” said Craig Shames, a junior political science major who is upset with the voting process. “It’s like the administration doesn’t trust the students and doesn’t think they’re educated enough to decide the vote themselves.”
Pete Antonellis, the Student Government Association’s Vice President for Academic Affairs and a member of the 2003 Homecoming Court, also believes that the voting process is unfair.
“After a while, you have to wonder if the only way you have a shot at this is if you’re a Student Ambassador or you work for NU directly,” Antonellis said.
Homecoming Queen Meagan Longley said she thought that not only was the process fair, but that she couldn’t see where any animosity would have come from.
“We all kind of got along really well, and I just had a really good time. I really don’t know how many votes any of us got, they don’t tell us that. I think I would have been just as happy if someone else got the title,” Longley said.
Many people have come to Longley’s defense, stating that Student Ambassadors is only one of the many groups she’s involved in.
“[Longley] is a very involved student,” said Colleen Kern, a senior business management major and last year’s Homecoming Queen. “She’s a second year Resident Assistant, an Orientation Leader, she helped start women’s volleyball, she sits on three committees, she helped put together the ‘Writing on the Wall Project’ and she’s raised over $5,000 for breast cancer research. She’s helped a lot of students, and she was out there campaigning every day. She was very deserving of the title of Homecoming Queen.”
Shames and Antonellis both said Homecoming King Jeff Riley was not well-known around campus prior to his court victory.
“I think the fact that there were so many uneducated voters, especially freshmen, contributed to the outcome,” Shames said. “People were only going on a picture and a quote in the newspaper. Homecoming should be a time when people find out what the candidates have actually accomplished for Northeastern. People just don’t take it seriously.”
According to Brooke Tempesta, the associate director of Student Activities, however, “the King and Queen were both definitely out there campaigning.”
Also contributing to the dissatisfaction with the voting process, according to Antonellis, is the fact that the actual number of votes for each candidate are not released.
“What’s the purpose of having a student vote if you’re not going to announce what that vote count is?” Antonellis said.
Tempesta, who headed up the Homecoming vote count, said there is no reason that the vote count should be released.
“I don’t see how releasing the results would help,” Tempesta said. “There’s only one king and queen — would it really make someone feel better to know they came in third or fourth? If they really wanted, I would release the percentages that the king and queen got, but I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings with the actual numbers. I don’t want people to run for court and then be embarrassed. It’s still an honor to be on court.”
She said that, this year, 538 students voted and Riley was “definitely the winner.”
According to Tempesta, Longley won by an even larger margin than Riley.
Some students also brought up the point that advisors to certain committees sit on the Homecoming Selection Committee, leaving open the possibility of bias towards members of their respective groups.
However, Joanne Smith, the assistant director of Alumni Relations, who has sat on the committee both last year and this year, said that the interviews are completely fair.
“Almost all of the judges on the panel are advisors to several student groups,” Smith said, “leaving absolutely no room for bias towards one specific group.”
Smith is the advisor to the Student Ambassadors, as well as the class councils and the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority.
“To think that any advisor on the board would be biased towards one person or group is just not right,” Smith said. “I could see where a student would think that, but there is just absolutely no opportunity for bias.”
Tempesta said that she believes that the voting process right now is extremely fair and does not need to be changed.
“The importance is that the student vote does count, and someone cannot win with a good interview alone. But they can’t win with just the student vote alone, either. A student can’t win with just one or the other,” Tempesta said.
Hong Nguyen, a junior finance major, does not think that the administration should have a vote at all.
“I think it should be for students only,” Nguyen said. “It’s a student activity; why should the faculty have a say in it?”
Shames said, however, that the administration needs to have some say, but not in the final vote.
“The administration should narrow down the candidates, and then allow the students to have the final say,” Shames said. “Even if it is a popularity contest.”
Tempesta said there is too much emphasis placed on who wins, how many votes the winner received and possible controversy surrounding the vote.
“People should be proud of who’s representing them. It should be about school pride, tradition, and loyalty to the university, which is why it’s good to have a mixed vote,” Tempesta said. “Regardless, all of the people on the court were amazing individuals.”
