There are 11 vacant seats on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Student Association Senate that sit empty with no promise of filling up by the end of the semester, as senators search for people who are motivated and prepared to serve.

The full Senate is comprised of 50 students representing the schools and colleges.

Four senators were removed from their positions after receiving too many demerits, while two others were counseled to leave by Speaker Raymond Duncan in October. The SA is withholding the names of those who were asked to leave.

Duncan said that senators are made aware of the demerit system when they begin their demerits can be issued until September. They are stripped of their positions after 12 demerits, but any can appeal. So far, none of the four senators have appealed.

Demerits are given for any one of four different reasons: four demerits for an unexcused absence from a Senate meeting, two for an excused absence and one for arriving late or leaving a meeting early.

Senators are also supposed to join at least two committees: one SA committee and one university committee. A senator can receive up to two demerits each month if this requirement is not met.

SA has experienced problems with students who are appointed to the Senate but quickly lose interest. Duncan said possible reasons for this include the lack of interest and free time for students in the School of Education and graduate students, among others.

“There’s usually a portion of students that drop out because of a lack of commitment (to the Senate),” Duncan said.

The School of Education has the most Senate vacancies with three, followed by the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which has two vacancies. Additionally, there is one vacancy each from the College of Health Sciences, the Peck School of the Arts, the School of Information Sciences, the Graduate School, and freshmen. One at-large senate seat also remains open.

Letters & Sciences Sen. Jon Groves said that one way the Senate could retain members and raise interest would be to be more “issue salient” and deal with “issues that the average student can relate to.”

Duncan could not say when the vacancies would be filled, and said there was no guarantee they could even be filled by the end of the semester.

Groves said that while the Senate ideally needed as many diverse voices as possible, the SA needs to make sure that the seats are filled by people who are motivated and prepared to serve.

“It’s not a good idea to be hasty,” Groves said.

Both Groves and Duncan mentioned greater accountability among members as a long-term goal for the SA.

For information on the SA Senate, including the vacant Senate seats, visit sa.uwm.edu or the SA office in Union, Room 363.

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