There are 21 Student Senate seats up for grabs in the fall Student Government elections.

Six off-campus seats, six at-large seats and nine off-campus seats are available.

Current Student Senate members are allowed to run for re-election.

Grad student Mark Bates has been involved with the Student Senate for two and a half years. He will not be running for re-election this fall. As a grad assistant, he has lots of other duties.

“Let someone else have a shot,” Bates said.

Rich Higginbotham is another member whose term is up. He is running for re-election though. Even though he has not filed his paperwork to run, he wants to continue being the Housing committee chair and working on updating the landlord registration Web site.

The deadline for interested students to file is before noon on Nov. 8.

“Over the next week is when most people will submit, right before the deadline,” said Student Senate Speaker Kent Ohms.

There are expectations that have to be met by Student Senate members.

“There is obviously a GPA requirement for candidates to be eligible to run,” said Ceci Brinker, director of Student Life. “They also need a petition that is signed by other students of Eastern endorsing their candidacy.”

Students must have a GPA of 2.25 and be registered for 12 credit hours as an undergrad and nine credit hours for a grad student. They must get 25 student signatures to be placed on the Dec. 4 and 5 ballot.

“Well, for the average senator you’re looking at three office hours a week, an hour to two hours a week in a senate meeting and then possibly another hour in a given week working on a committee,” Brinker said. “So on average you’re probably looking at six to seven hours a week.”

Student Senate members who are committed to working on behalf of the students usually put in more hours, Brinker said.

Interested students can pick up an application in the Student Activities Center in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.