Approximately 20 freshmen are running for Student Senate positions, half the amount that ran last year.

Maritza Adonis, a sophomore in political science and student senator, said she thinks part of this problem was due to the application process.

“Last year, the applications were all paper,” Adonis said. “This year, we did it online and a lot of them missed the deadline.”

Adonis said she didn’t think interest was down because many people had asked about applications.

Patrick Sessoms, a freshman in construction engineering, said he thought more people would have applied.

“I went to the meeting and there were only 26 or so people there,” Steffans said. “I was kind of surprised.”

Steffons said he was interested in running for Student Senate so he could voice the opinions of other freshmen.

“I want to be a predominant voice in the Student Government and to represent my peers in a professional way,” Steffons said. “I want to ensure that my peers have proper representation in the Student Government, so they don’t feel like they’re being left out.”

Student Senate President Greg Doucette said responsibilities, such as those Steffons mentioned, are exactly what a freshman senator has to do.

“The responsibilities are the same as any other senator,” Doucette, a senior in computer science, said. “They have to attend Senate meetings and weigh in on the issues. They are accountable for the people who elected them.”

According to Doucette, a senator’s main responsibility is to find out how his or her peers feel about an issue that comes up in Senate meetings.

“When an issue come up in the Senate, they need to go to their constituents and see how they weigh in on the issue, and then represent them in the Senate,” he said. “They also need to make sure their constituents knows what’s going on.”

Andrew Tucker, director of Government Relations, said freshmen who to run for Senate have a specific set of rules they have to follow while campaigning.

“One of the biggest things that we had problems with last year was students defacing other students campaign materials,” Tucker said. “They also have to follow all of the regulations of other offices on campus. If they want to put a sandwich board on the street, they have to get permission first.”

Tucker also said that they want students who aren’t running for office to report anyone they see violating a regulation.

“The thing with the regulations is that someone actually has to report you,” he said. “That’s something we really want to encourage this year. If people see stuff going on and they don’t report it, it’s really hurting the integrity of the elections process.”

Other campaign regulations include the dispersal of fliers and the creation of groups on social networking sites.

“They can’t just put a bunch of fliers on a table in a classroom, or just leave them on desks,” Tucker said.

While the creation of groups on Web sites such as Facebook or MySpace was allowed at any time, fliers could not be handed out until Sept. 3, according to Steffons.

“They told us we could make Facebook groups, but that we could do any advertising on campus until [Sept. 3],” Steffons said. “We couldn’t pass out fliers and we couldn’t chalk stuff on the walkways.”

Student Government will hold elections for freshmen senators Sept. 16.