Nine new senators, appointed by the Senate membership committee, were sworn in at last Tuesday’s Senate meeting. These new senators were chosen to replace the students who have resigned from Senate over the past few months.

The spring semester is the most common time for resignations and this year, nine out of the 37 Senators resigned their positions by the second week of February. Senate membership chair Mitchell London was not worried about the resignations.

“Most people don’t even know who their senators are; it won’t affect the individual schools or students,” London said.

He added that Senate candidates are told about the time commitment before they run for office. London said that there are no special plans to try to prevent resignations after the next elections, which will be held this Wednesday and Thursday.

“There’s not much else we can do,” he said.

Sophomore Senate Secretary Gabe Travers feels the resignations a result of both the time commitment and having more upperclassmen on Senate.

“Seniors have to worry about graduating. [Senate] requires a lot of time,” Travers said.

First-year senator, and current candidate for Senate secretary, Drew Washington thinks the resignations are due to laziness and a lack of interest.

“People don’t feel like they are doing anything important,” he said, “people [join Senate] to pad their resumes, not to get stuff done.” Washington admitted that the resignations of two of the first-year senators had not affected his job.

“If two members of a team are suddenly missing, I should notice. Unfortunately, my job didn’t change at all because we aren’t working on significant issues.”

Neither of the first-year senators that resigned could be reached for comment.