Selections for this year's 20-member Senior Executive Committee the group of students from the Class of 2010 charged with helping members of the class stay connected after graduation were announced Monday night in an e-mail to members of the senior class, according to assistant director of class activities at the Office of Alumni Relations James Barkley '06.
The SEC is responsible for several tasks, including planning the Class of 2010's five-year reunion, writing the class newsletter and managing the senior class gift and the annual fund, Barkley said.
The members, all of whom are in the Class of 2010, are Abbe Sokol, Alex Chan, Allie Lowe, Allie K. Miller, Amaka Nneji, Andrew Ching, Benjamin Wiener, Chelsea Kirk, Cory Cunningham, Dan Moore, David Knight, Eleni Stavrou, Emily Baumrin, Frances Vernon, Lawton Leung, Maura Cass, Nichole Davis, Noah Glick, Robert Hoffman and Victoria Stockman, according to the e-mail.
Lowe and Cunningham are former members of The Dartmouth Senior Staff.
The Class of 2010 directly elected 12 of the members, Nneji said. Eight additional students were then selected by the elected members, she said.
Once the full committee is selected, there is no differentiation between those elected directly by the senior class and those appointed by the elected members, according to several students on the committee.
"All of our applicants were leaders or involved with lots of campus activities," Barkley said.
Forty seniors applied to be part of the committee, Barkley said. Students were allowed to vote for up to 12 applicants using an online ballot distributed by e-mail, Knight said.
The deadline to apply to be a member of the SEC was Feb. 16, according to the Dartmouth Office of Alumni Relations web site.
"I think all of us feel pretty privileged and excited," Miller said.
In selecting the eight other members, the 12 elected by class ballot considered which interests were already represented on the committee, according to Miller, who was one of the 12 elected members.
Part of the reason Miller wanted to be part of SEC was her fear of "separation anxiety from the school," although the largest reason was her "love" of the College and the Class of 2010 and her desire to "stay connected," she said.
Knight said he hopes the SEC will prevent him from losing touch with his friends and the Dartmouth community after graduation.
"I really love our class community and I want to help sustain that over the next few years," Knight said.
This year, 578 students voted in the SEC election, Barkley said. The election drew 629 ballots last year, The Dartmouth previously reported.
This year, each student's full application was sent out in an e-mail to the senior class. Previous years' e-mails included only statements written later by the applicants, Barkley said.
In previous years, students have voted based on popularity rather than merit, Barkley said. The change to circulating full applications was instituted to prevent such a practice.
"I believe everyone really stood on their own merits [this year]," Knight said.
The application required students to describe why they wanted to be part of SEC, what talents and skills they would bring to the Committee and what activities they are involved with on campus, Barkley said.
Knight said that to his knowledge, applicants did not campaign to be on the committee, except for e-mails sent by applicants to students reminding them to vote or explaining their reasons for wanting to be on the committee.
