Senior Class Marshals Named

Eight seniors were named class marshals on Friday, ending a two-week election process to select those charged with planning senior year events and reunions.

Caleb I. Franklin ’05 was elected first marshal, the equivalent of a senior class president.

The other marshals—similar to vice presidents—are Michael H. Kalin ’05, Dominique D. Nong ’05, Silvia W. Scandar ’05, Sheria D. Smith ’05, Duncan G. Wells ’05, Lacey R. Whitmire ’05 and Mahmoud A. Youssef ’05.

The marshals, elected by seniors from a pool of 60 candidates, will plan events such as senior week, choose the speaker for Class Day and help host Commencement. After graduation, the marshals will take on the lifetime responsibility of organizing alumni activities for their class.

The marshals will join with the soon-to-be-elected House representatives to appoint a class secretary and class treasurer, completing the Senior Class Committee.

But Nong, one of the new class marshals, said she was concerned that the process by which seniors were notified of the opportunity to vote was flawed. A few days before each round of the election, Director of College Alumni Programs F. Hoopes Wampler sent an e-mail to seniors with a link to the voting website and a personal password.

According to Nong, some seniors did not recognize Wampler’s name and deleted the e-mail. Other students who had studied abroad or taken a year off—and may not have been listed as seniors by the registrar’s office—did not receive the e-mail at all.

Wampler could not be reached for comment this weekend.

But Nong said the alumni office worked hard to publicize the voting and fix the problem.

“Anyone who contacted the alumni office directly about the problem was added to the list,” Nong said.

As for the marshals’ plans for senior year, Franklin said he prefers to keep his ideas secret for now.

“Just know that it’s going to be hot. If we let all the goodies out of the jar now, what fun will it be later?” said Franklin.

Other marshals, however, were more vocal about their ideas. Nong’s older sister, Chantal, graduated from Yale in 2003, and Nong hopes to borrow ideas from Yale’s senior activities.

“Yale did a trip where they rent out condos at Myrtle Beach. They all just hung out at the beach for the last few days. We do nothing like that,” Nong said.

Whitmire said she would consider moving away from the trend of asking comedians to speak at Class Day.

“At first I thought it was a bad thing. I think we should think creatively,” Whitmire said. “But at the end of the day, if we think through lots of people and we think that what everyone would still enjoy is a comedian in the vein of Ali G and Will Ferrell, I’m fine with that.”

Whitmire said her ideal speaker is country singer Tim McGraw.

Franklin said he is looking forward to his post-graduation duties.

“I have so much Harvard love. This school has opened so many doors for me, that to be able to represent it for the rest of my life is an honor,” said Franklin. “Am I shirking down from duty? No! It’s a lifetime thing, baby.”