Sen. Greg Doucette and student centers president Sara Yasin, filed to run for student Senate president Friday, joining junior Jon Chichwak on the ballot.

The two joined in to protest the removal of Sen. James Hankins from the ballot, after the Elections Commission disqualified him because of a Policies, Rules and Regulations violation. The removal left Chichwak alone on the ballot.

“I really think [Hankins] deserves the position,” Yasin said. “The rug was pulled from under him, and I believe students deserve a choice in Senate president.”

Hankins filed a grievance against Paul Cousins, the director of the Office of Student Conduct, in an attempt to regain eligibility for another position.

“A lot of students come up to me in support of me,” Hankins said. “Their stories of their own mistreatments have given me a better picture of what’s going on there.”

Although Doucette and Yasin originally hinted they would work to reinstate Hankins as Senate president if they were elected, Hankins said he would feel satisfied if either of them became Senate president.

“I would love to be Senate president, but I really have to reevaluate things,” Hankins said. “I don’t want to hurt the credibiility of [Doucette] or [Yasin] and know if either of them wins, they will serve the position well.”

With elections beginning today, Doucette and Yasin have had little time to campaign or create an extensive platform.

“The biggest thing for me is defining the role of Senators and making sure they have what it takes to be students’ best advocates,” Yasin said.

Both Doucette and Yasin recognize that they may split the vote in between each other, with each using voters previously from Hankins’ camp.

“We’ll both be working together, but we appeal to a lot of different kinds of folks,” Doucette said.

Chichwak, who was the lone Senate president candidate for a day, said he wasn’t surprised Doucette filed to run.

“I wasn’t surprised at all that [Doucette] jumped in, but I was surprised about [Yasin],” Chichwak said. “I knew she was planning on doing other things like studying abroad next semester, so that kind of caught me off guard.”

Chichwak said he continued campaigning over the weekend, checking on his signs and making sure everything is still set up for today’s and tomorrow’s elections.

“My strategy hasn’t changed,” Chichwak said. “I always knew it would be me and whoever, and that it would be a tough fight no matter what.”