While the Government of the Student Body is busy dealing with issues from tailgating to terrace parties, open seats remain within the organization.

With general elections long over, students need only to be voted in by current GSB members to serve. Responsibilities of representatives seated this way are the same as if they had been seated in the general election.

“Right now, people can just come in if they’re interested, talk with current members and get voted on during a senate meeting,” said President Mike Banasiak

“It’s a lot more informal now than during election time,” Banasiak added. Candidates must have a GPA of 2.0 or higher, and any student is eligible for any spot that they’re found suitable for, he said.

“There are no set number of terms, either,” Banasiak said. “If you’re in college for 10 years, you can be in GSB for 10 years, I believe. I know some people who currently have been in GSB for four or five years.”

However, not everyone remains part of GSB for that long, which can lead to open seats mid-semester.

“Sometimes people’s interests change, or they have time conflicts,” Banasiak said. “There’s a number of reasons that spots open up during the year … a new and fresh perspective is always welcome.”

Aarthi Parthasarathy and Rafael Fernandez were seated as graduate senator and design senator last week.

Fernandez, who in the past served as senator of international students, a position that was eliminated, said he was glad to be back on GSB.

“I’m a person of organization and leadership,” Fernandez said. “I like representing people and I already had a term as a senator — I know how to manage it.”

Speaker of the Senate Tony Luken said senators with strong opinions are valuable to GSB.

“Some senators are more vocal than others,” Luken said. “Some, like Fernandez, will get in there and have his opinion known, and that’s the kind of GSB member I really like. I think that’s the kind of senator we really need.”

Fernandez said he dropped by the GSB office space and was surprised to find his college seat, design, was open. He applied and was voted upon.

“I had a fire in me to go back … I come from four generations of politicians, and I’m the only one not studying law in my family,” Fernandez said.

Today, Fernandez said he feels GSB is a way for him to mix his family’s political traditions with his educational course.

“GSB [has] let me mix design and politics and it’s helped me with debating,” he said.

“It’s given me a lot of political experience and arguing experience.”