With spring elections more than four months away, many candidates are already throwing their hats in the ring.

Following the “Year of the Pirate,” students can expect to see a spike in the number of prospects on this year’s ballot.

According to student senators, a record number of candidates will be campaigning for the office of student body president.

Sara Yasin, a student senator and sophomore in textile and apparel management, said she had gotten word that there would be a lot of competition in the April elections.

As a candidate for student body president, Yasin said she doesn’t want to repeat the tense atmosphere of the 2005 spring elections.

“It will be interesting because a lot of people are going to pay more attention to [the race],” she said.

Her campaign’s motto will center around running a clean campaign and not playing into any mudslinging techniques expected from a few of her competitors.

Yasin declined to name candidates who are rumored to be planning attack on other student body president hopefuls’ campaigns.

A veteran of large student elections, Student Senate President Forrest Hinton said he will not be running for an office in April. He will, however, be judging prospects according to their previous activities to choose the University’s future student leaders.

“Past history prevents future performance,” Hinton said. “If the person was a good senator, then they would make a good student senate president.”

He said he values hard-working candidates, and said it would behoove students to do job-shadowing to fully understand the roles they are campaigning to step into.

From the past year, Hinton said he has learned a great deal about the vast responsibilities of the student leaders.

Hinton cited the challenge of appealing to both administrators and students to facilitate compromises as being one of the most difficult aspects of the job.

“You define the position to a certain degree by what you do — by what initiatives you start,” he said.

Senators James Hankins and Matt Walton have confirmed their intent to run for student senate president while Zack Adams and Drexel Heard, both students senators, said they were about 90 percent sure they would be joining the race.

Walton, a sophomore in technology education, said he predicts “students will see a year where tickets do not exist.”

He pointed to qualifications, rather than the popularity of a group of candidates, to play a larger rule in the coming elections.

Walton said he plans to rely on his record in the senate and will only inquire into the professional records of his opponents, but noted that character is important in a campaign.

Cody Williams, Inter-Residence Council president, said he intends to run for student body president and is beginning to organize his campaign with an unveiling in the coming months.

Andrew Barnes, Will Langley and Yasin have confirmed they will join Williams in the race for the presidential office atop Witherspoon Student Center.

Will Quick, a senior in biomedical engineering, said he is strongly considering running but won’t confirm until closer to time for the books to open, which allows candidates to formally announce their intent to run.

The Student Government Web site reports the books will open for the election on Feb. 15.