Though organizing Class Day activities will remain the top priority for the Senior Class Council, members said they plan to hold brand new events throughout the year.

Council treasurer Ben Schenkel ’12 and council secretary Kevin Adkisson ’12 selected 17 seniors last week to serve on the council from a pool of about 40 applications. Schenkel, who led the council’s first meeting of the year Sunday along with Adkisson, said the council will continue to organize parties such as Mory’s Nights and the Last Chance Dance, but he hopes to develop ideas for new events.

“We haven’t nailed down any specific [new] events,” Schenkel said. “If there were any consensus, it’s to have more events than this year [than in] the past.”

When choosing SCC applicants, who were asked to describe an event they would plan with $10,000, Schenkel said he and Adkisson evaluated the creativity of their events. He added that he wanted to form a diverse group that could plan activities for students from all circles of the Yale community.

“We want to find any opportunity we can to put on events that connect the class [during] our last year at Yale,” Schenkel said.

Taylor Vaughn Lasley ’12, a member of SCC, said she proposed a Great Gatsby lawn party on Old Campus for her application, and hopes she can help make that idea into reality this year.

The council spent most of its first meeting brainstorming new events, said council member Sara Egozi ’12, but the SCC plans to solicit ideas from the rest of the senior class as well. She added that the council will gauge the success of its events by getting feedback from those who attend.

Vaughn Lasley said the SCC’s events can serve as “coping mechanism[s]” for seniors as they prepare to graduate.

“We’re here to temper any sense of urgency or missed opportunity the class may be feeling,” Schenkel said.

Schenkel has already determined one new way to release pre-graduation anxiety: more dancing at Toad’s Place. Schenkel said as students progress through their Yale careers, Wednesday night Toad’s parties begin to lose their appeal, but he would like to revive them for seniors.

The Council’s faculty advisors are Penelope Laurans, special assistant to the president and master of Jonathan Edwards College, and John Meeske ’74, Yale College associate dean for s