For most of the academic year, The New School’s University Student Senate has functioned with three vacant seats, rendering many students without full representation in the university-wide body of student government.

Rather than call a special election to resolve the matter, the USS announced in an email sent to the student body on February 16 that they will hold elections for next year’s senate in March – almost two months earlier than usual. The senate hopes that by moving elections to an earlier date, more students will seek positions on the USS and the body will be able to avoid vacancies in the future.

Lang senator and USS co-chair Katherine Towell said that time constraints also contributed to the decision not to hold special elections that would have filled the seats for this term.

“We might have been ready to do a special election by December, but by that point we’d be more than halfway through the senate term, so it wouldn’t make sense to do it three months before regular elections,” Towell said.

According to the February 16 announcement, “elections will take place from Monday, March 5 through Friday, March 9, and there are open positions for representatives from each division.” Past elections have been held in late April.

Due to a lack of candidates in the 2011 USS elections, Parsons has four representatives in the senate – two less than its proportional allotment. The New School for Drama, meanwhile, has had no direct representation since the spring of 2011, after sole representative Sean Elias left The New School this past sumer.

Milano senator and USS co-chair Melissa Holmes said that “bad timing, [and] not disinterest,” is to blame for the lack of candidates seeking senate positions in the past.

“In previous years, there was not enough outreach to encourage people to actually run,” Holmes said. “Having elections before spring break is better than [holding elections] in finals week.” Holmes added that there will be more aggressive advertising undertaken by the USS than in past years, in order to promote the elections.
Student participation in the Senate processes has been low in the past. Only 948 people voted in the 2011 elections, out of roughly 10,000 across The New School’s seven divisions. Despite holding a large proportion of senate seats, only 95 students voted from Parsons. The race for former New School for Drama representative Elias’s seat, meanwhile, was uncontested and he won with just five 5 votes.