There hasn’t been much interest from students in filling executive board positions in the Inter-Residence Hall Association.

Last year Eric Peters, president of IRHA, didn’t have a problem filling the executive board positions because almost 15 students applied for the different positions, he said.

There are still many other hall and association positions open on the IRHA ballot, but Peters said students are beginning to learn about them at the last minute.

“They don’t know that the opportunity is there, so they can’t pursue it,” he said.

Publicity for those positions, such as fliers or announcements at house meetings, did not reach enough students, Peters said.

Those currently running for positions have had experience in IRHA and may have been influenced by current members to run for a position, Peters said.

“I think it’s more of individual motivation to do it,” he said.

Peters said fewer than 1,000 students voted in last year’s IRHA elections.

Peters is the author of an executive order that would allow the newly elected president and vice president to send out an IRHA news e-mail to all residence hall students notifying them about the open executive positions.

Usually, the news e-mail is only sent out once a month, but Peters wants to make an exception this time, he said.

Current IRHA officers came to office in different ways, such as word of mouth.

Keith Dahlby, director of information technology, said he took the position because his friend on parliament notified him of the position.

Dahlby said he wanted to get involved with student government, and the position fit well with his previous experience. Last year, the president and vice president had some trouble filling some of the executive positions, but all were filled before the end of spring semester.

Peters said residence hall and association positions, if not filled, are usually filled early in the fall semester.

“We’re trying to get the message out, but I don’t know how successful it is,” he said.

Dahlby said the students who are running for uncontested positions are generally students who have been associated with IRHA or have been asked to run by a current member of IRHA.

Current IRHA members wouldn’t talk people into taking positions if they weren’t confident they could maintain the duties of the position, he said.

Peters said the executive positions must be seated by the last IRHA meeting.

That meeting is scheduled for April 22.

The next IRHA meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Union Drive Community Center multipurpose room.