Issue date: 4/7/09 Section: News

Quenton Anderson, a freshman business major, places his ballot in the box after voting during the Student Government elections Monday afternoon in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. (Karolina Strack/The Daily Eastern News)

With a large number of appointments the last few years, Student Government officials are discussing whether the appointment process needs to be modified.

Student Senate Speaker Drew Griffin said he sees how appointed senators could help the organization. Griffin was appointed in the fall.

"I think appointments can be very beneficial if the proper amount of time and care is put into making them," Griffin said. "I am very proud of the five senators I appointed this semester.

"Making an appointment to the senate can be a daunting task because you are filling in elected positions."

Griffin appointed five students to the senate this semester: Justin Barrett, Michelle Martin, Jennifer Prillaman, Jason Sandidge and Michael Stopka.

Last semester, former Student Senate Speaker Isaac Sandidge made eight appointments.

Griffin said he did not want to fill all the seats.

"There is absolutely a detriment for too many appointments," Griffin said. "I think there should be a cap put on how many appointments you could make even with empty seats, maybe six.

"I felt uncomfortable with placing eight students on the senate because the power resides with the students. If one person would pick eight out of 30 senators it would give a person too much power."

Ashlei Birch, the officer of elections, said she thinks the speaker is qualified in making good selections.

"The speaker does a qualified job in picking these candidates," Birch said. "Usually, the appointed senators help right after their transition period of two or three weeks."

The speaker said some Student Government official are looking into election and appointment processes and the number of senate seats served.

If the senate decided to reduce the number of seats, Griffin sees the negative of that action.

"The counter argument to that is if you reduce the number of seats to have a full senate, what would it change since we would have the same amount of people; so what would it matter?" Griffin said.

Birch said in her whole nine semesters with senate, there has not been definitive talk about lowering the available seats.

Griffin said an annual election might help.

"A lot of schools have annual elections in the spring," he said. "It might be something Eastern will benefit from in the future by having yearly senatorial terms and giving more incentive to more students to run and vote."

Griffin also thinks the semester system has its positives because some senators have only one semester to donate their time.

Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7942 or at rtbajek@eiu.edu.

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