More students than usual applied to fill positions in the executive branch Cabinet, to join the Student Advisory Committee to the Chancellor and to serve as senior marshals.
Congress Speaker Tony Larson said he expects this trend to extend to open congressional seats. A special election to fill 14 vacant seats will be held April 23."I am very confident we'll be able to fill all the seats on the 23rd," he said.
Traditionally the positions least sought during student elections, congressional seats have not been completely filled in two years, he said. Larson said 11 people already have formally expressed interest in running. Petitions to run are due Thursday.
Larson said a rise in applicants would increase Congress' legitimacy. "If we have a full Congress that is representative of the student body, and we pass a resolution, that really sends a powerful message that this is what students want," he said.
Student Body President Jen Daum said she received 50 applications for Cabinet positions and 21 for officer positions. She said these numbers were at least twice as high as she could remember them being in recent years. SACC received 108 applications this year, which Rudy Kleysteuber, former student body vice president and SACC chairman, said was about twice the number it received last year.
This year was the first that the application for SACC was online, which might have helped increase the number of applicants, Kleysteuber said.
But Daum said she attributes the interest from students to disillusionment with the relationship between past student government and the administration.
Daum said she thinks students felt marginalized by the University administration's discussions about a proposed business school in Qatar and a proposed night parking plan. As a result, she said, more students are getting involved.
"Students want to express their views to the administration, and they feel that hasn't happened in the past," she said.
