The Student Senate is now having special elections and will start the year off with new members, a new Speaker of the Senate and a new secretary.

Student Body President Catie Witt said new senate members are needed to make quorum. Currently, there are 11 Student Senate members not including the executive board. To make quorum there must be a minimum of 15 members.

“Without quorum we can’t have a regular business meeting and vote on things, so that’s why we’re having a special election,” Witt said. “Once we get senators we can get a speaker and committee chairs and get rolling.”

Witt said to become a Student Senate member, students will have to fill out an application and get 50 signatures before being considered for the position. To get applications students must go to the Student Activities Center in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

“I think we’re all having trouble finding members and different leaders who want to be a part of something,” Witt said. “There are a lot of different factors.”

Witt said it is her goal to get the general student body morale up through Student Senate this semester and show everyone what Eastern has to offer.

“Only a speaker can appoint (members), so that’s why the executive board decided to go the route of special elections,” she said.

Luke Young, student vice president of academic affairs, said while the new Student Senate members and the new Speaker have yet to be determined, Kim Kuspa, a communication studies major, has been appointed as the new secretary.

Young said Kuspa may be helpful with information regarding the vitalization project Workgroups as she is a member of Workgroup no. 8, Academic Visioning I. Vitalization project Workgroups no. 1-7’s recommendations were released online Monday afternoon. Workgroups no. 8 and 9 will continue working throughout the semester.

He said the role of Student Government throughout the process will be to stay informed, stay positive and help the project in any way that it can.

“We’ve told everybody on Student Government (to) have an open mind about it, be supportive of it, don’t ‘diss’ it in any way because this is needed,” Young said. “It’s a big undertaking and we want to be supportive of it.”

Student senate member Felicia Wagner said her main goals this semester are to increase student engagement and to become the Speaker of the Senate.

“I think that communication is the biggest key,” Wagner said. “I really want to get more technology ready and improve social media.”

Wagner said having the open seats filled through this special election process will help the Student Senate better represent the student body.

“I really want to represent the student body and I feel like if there are open seats we may not be covering all the diversity on campus,” Wagner said. “I think the special election makes it really fair and makes the Student Government better by having more people on committees.”

Chrissy Miller can be reached at 581-2812 or clmiller9@eiu.edu.