The Student Council election begins April 7 with historic changes to the campaigning system. Candidates must submit written statements, their completed candidacy petition and a 90-second campaign video by April 21.

The election will be April 29 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. through the Student Council website. Students will be able to cast votes for declared candidates or write in another student.

In lieu of campaign speeches in the cafeteria, each candidate’s campaign video will be played by advisers during the April 27 advisory period. The videos will also be available on Schoology.

“We decided to go with videos this year because of the lack of turnout to watch campaign speeches in previous years,” All-School President Brent Pennington said. “Hopefully this will boost engagement and turnout for the election.”

Brent hopes that campaign videos will give candidates the freedom to display their creativity and potentially attract students who would not otherwise have run for office.

“Student Council gives students the opportunity to play a part in their community, effecting change at Lab,” Brent said. “I encourage anyone who finds that interesting to run for Student Council.”

Brent said he’s most proud of his administration’s increase in transparency with regularly posted meeting notes and a list of bills in progress.

Brent said, “I hope next year’s officers will build on the transparency measures we implemented.”