In the Commons Tuesday and Thursday of last week, Oct. 30 and Nov. 1, juniors and seniors received an opportunity that Ladue upperclassmen have not in the past: the chance to vote on Prom themes.

“The reason we’re doing this this year is because over the summer I had the notion that it’s not [just] my prom,” junior class president Nick Nash said. “It’s everybody’s prom, and I want everyone to have a fun prom, and I figured this was the best way to get student morale up about prom because over the past few years, talking to seniors and former seniors, prom hasn’t been that exciting. That’s what I want, so I figured if people had the choice to choose certain things about prom then it would be more fun and create a bigger sense of community in our school.”

Nash said that about 247 juniors and seniors voted on the first day, choosing between five different themes. Stuco selected the options for the Prom theme before presenting them to juniors and seniors. On the ballot, upperclassmen could choose between Upper East Side, the Roaring Twenties, “Outta this World,” Hollywood, and disco.

“As a STUCO cabinet for the junior class, we came up with the ideas,” Nash said. “Some were planned, others were rushed. We figured that if anyone had a good idea that they came up with that they would tell us, and if we saw fit that it was a good idea that we would put that on the ballot, and we did get a few of those.”

Since this year is the first that STUCO has allowed upperclassmen to vote on prom themes, students’ response will help determine the success of the prom theme voting. Senior Kyneddi Grant thought new voting system was successful and should be continued.

“The people that were sitting there were … not too aggressive, but they definitely, if you were just going to walk past, [weren’t] just going to let a vote be not counted,” Grant said. “They definitely wanted your vote, so it was great to see that they wanted you to be involved in your student council. … Things like that are small, but they really do make a difference.”

When determining her prom preferences, Grant chose her senior prom theme carefully. She ultimately settled on the Upper East Side theme.

“I chose the Upper East [Side] them,” Grant said. “Hollywood is so cliche … and everyone does Hollywood every year, so that’s out. Disco … that’s kind of cliche too, so it really came down to the Roaring Twenties and Upper East, and I thought, Upper East, New York, Manhattan, that’s going to be really cool, incorporating the Hollywood but just not the complete cliche.”

Although sophomore and STUCO treasurer Lillian Donahue supports elections for prom themes, she believes the system should be extended to include Homecoming. Donahue believes that voting for Homecoming themes would allow freshmen and sophomores, not just upperclassmen, to participate in the process.

“I think we should [be able to vote for Homecoming themes] because it’s our Homecoming,” Donahue said. “It’s not necessarily about one student group. Although a student group does represent us, it’s still the whole school that’s going to be involved in it. Most people are involved in Homecoming. It’s not only juniors and seniors, it’s freshmen through seniors.” #