by Lila Letica, News Editor

This year’s traditional “Homecoming Court” was left behind in hopes to find a more modern way to honor our upperclassmen. Aquinas has chosen to call these representatives “Top Saints.”

The applicants were self nominated members of the junior class and above. The top six were chosen off of a point based system based on academic achievements, involvement within the community, and were asked what Dominican pillar they best represented.

This year, six women were chosen as Top Saints. The women were honored with sunflowers, no crowns in sight, between the Men’s and Women’s Soccer games. 

Each one was involved on campus in different ways through RSOs, volunteer contributions, and outstanding academics. If you know any of them personally, it’s easy to see how they have contributed to the positive atmosphere of Aquinas. Congratulations ladies!

However, it was obvious at the presentation that “Top Sainthood” doesn’t hold the same value that the court has in years past. Normally, the stands are filled with peers waiting to see who is crowned. This year the stands were close to empty.

In years past, students have been allowed to nominate their fellow peers and vote on a king and queen. This year they were honored as equals, no pair of winners was chosen. The student body wasn’t involved in the process.

Jessica Trenshaw stated, “It would mean more to the community if friends were able to nominate.” In my interview with Jessica, she confided this new system, “perpetuates an unhealthy amount of involvement with activities.” Jessica felt honored to be a Top Saint, but couldn’t help notice the flaws with this new system.

The idea of the “Top Saints” versus a court was to provide a more inclusive and community involvement based system. The students that were chosen have done great work for this school, and their achievement isn’t meant to be belittled in this article. Yet, while I love girl power, it’s noticeable there wasn’t a single man representing the community.

This lack of inclusion of the student body and the anti-climactic announcement should be noticed. That isn’t to say that this new system is bad and we should return to the archaic notions of nominating a king and queen. Yet, a big part of homecoming is the student body coming together and supporting who they believe represents Aquinas, and they weren’t asked for their input at any point in the process.