Royal Court reimagines more inclusive student representation

November 4, 2024

By Kamryn Edwards, Staff Writer

As Xavier University gears up for its centennial year, a new royal court has taken the stage with new ideas and ways to engage students across campus. This Royal Court initiative, Royalty Reimagined, was inspired by the royal format that Xavier followed many years before.  

The 2024-25 Royal Court is led by seniors Youma Diabira and Chamberlain Newman. While Diabira and Newman are the 89th and 10th Miss and Mister Xavier, the two established a new tradition within Xavier’s royal court. This year is the inaugural year of the Royal Court’s Auxiliary Court. In solidarity with their “Royalty Reimagined” motto, the new court seeks to engage students across different disciplines by adding STEM, humanities, and student-athlete positions, including the addition of Miss and Mister 1925.  

 “Royalty Reimagined is inspired by the idea that we want to make the Royal Court more seen, we want to have a bigger impact on campus as a group and to begin implementing new things as we step into the centennial year,” Diabira said.  

“If you go look through Xavier’s archives, the Royal Court used to have a lot more titles. We want to honor the different traditions that Xavier has had in the past, and one of those is having a Mister and Miss that represent different student identities on campus,” Diabira added. 

Royalty Reimagined benefits from Newman’s role in Mister Xavier, who utilizes his relatively new position as Mister Xavier to support other men who need mentorship. Newman uses resources from the Men of Xavier, a separate organization he’s involved with on campus at the university. 

“We’re looking towards starting a male mentorship initiative through partnering with local elementary middle schools and high schools to help uplift young men, and also potentially partnering with Son of a Saint, which is an organization that helps mentor young men without fathers,” he explained.  

In society today, inclusivity has become a topic at the forefront of organizations, and Xavier is aiming to implement inclusivity through its choice to broaden the Royal Court horizon. Jamaya Stewart, a psychology major, believes the Royal Court is fulfilling their goal of inclusivity.  

“Royalty Reimagined incorporates inclusivity solely based on their auxiliary court. They are the first court in about a couple of years to have one, so I think that bringing in different people, bringing in different courts, from different aspects of student life at Xavier, bringing in a humanities major, bringing in a STEM major, bringing in someone from the student-athlete perspective, bringing in someone like Miss and Mister 1925, that overall embodies what Xavier is truly about. I think that that’s really important,” Stewart said. 

As a requirement for all student leaders at the university, Jaya Robinson attended the school’s leadership summit, along with other members of the royal court, representing her position as Miss Humanities and as Vice President of the Mental Health Coalition.  

“Well, I can definitely say, being first within my position, it’s already like being looked at differently because it’s like, ‘okay since she’s the first person to fulfill this role, how is she going about this?’ And I can definitely say leadership came a long way,” Robinson said.  

Robinson has already planned events that cater to humanities students at Xavier, where she will be able to further exhibit her leadership skills.  

“For example, with two events that I have thought about which were an industry day for solely humanities majors, so like, business, political science, anything that’s outside of STEM – so I wanted to create events and job opportunities solely for them, even art majors because some people struggle with finding something in their career field and something that they desire that they want to take long term,” Robinson said.  

James Lovejoy, the SGA vice president believes that the Royal Court attendance at the university’s annual leadership summit was significant and beneficial for their growth in their leadership positions.  

“Being the school ambassadors, I think that being here and interacting with not only Registered Student Organizations, but SGA members as well and gaining perspective on some of the issues that may be going on campus could help them in their roles as ambassadors,” Lovejoy said. 

 The hard work that the Royal Court has put forth since they established the auxiliary court is not the end of their efforts to create a more inclusive court.  

“In terms of appointments, we kind of brainstormed it right after we were elected. We worked with SGA President Chase Patterson, and he put it through executive orders, so now, it’s one of the bylaws that are an extension of the constitution so that it can continue after this year,” Diabira said.