Students of Parsons and The New School for Public Engagement are beginning the Fall 2012 semester without their allotted representation in the University Student Senate.

The USS is seeking replacements for five departing senators — three Parsons representatives and two representatives from The New School for Public Engagement. The defections occurred over the course of the summer break, and have left the USS missing a substantial part of its body at the outset of the new academic year. Three of the departing senators took a leave of absence, one withdrew from The New School, and another transfered to New York University.

“To do any serious work with nearly a third of our representation absent would be a disservice to ourselves and the students” said Katherine Towell, Lang senator and USS co-chair.

In February, the USS announced that it would move elections for the 2012-13 body up two months, from late April to early March, in response to representative vacancies that plagued the body at the time. The hope, according to senators, was that holding elections well before finals would increase student interest and the number of prospective candidates.

All of the senate’s seats were filled after the March elections, yet it was not long before several of elected students opted to leave their seats.

“I might have commitment problems throughout the semester,” said Senay Imre, a graduate student at The New School for Public Engagement and one of five students to leave the senate before the start of the school year. “I have a very busy schedule and I have to travel back and forth from Turkey this semester, and I don’t want it to be problem in the long run,” Imre said.

In response to the most recent round of defections, the USS has now begun a special election process. A web page for candidate submissions is currently live, and prospective candidates are being accepted until the evening of September 12. Voting is scheduled for September 17-21, with vote tallying and legitimizing taking place the following weekend.

After functioning for most of last year with a deficit of three senators, the senate is taking a more steadfast approach towards the empty seats, according to Towell.

“We are committed to having a full representative board this year. If we lose another senator, they will be replaced,” Towell said.

And despite the incomplete representation, some remain optimistic for a productive year in the USS.

“My understanding, from speaking to senators from previous years, was that there had never been as much commitment to making the USS an effective representational body,” said Jon Kopp, a Parsons graduate student who was forced to leave the senate this year due to a leave of absence. “And this was borne out, even in the time I was involved, by such measures as a comprehensive review of the USS constitution and an effort to draft a new and ambitious mission statement.”

Kopp said he felt that “the remaining senators, as well as those yet to be elected, will be able to carry the ambitious agenda we discussed in the spring and summer and make this an exceptional year.”