Three Student Association senators resigned recently and two new senators were appointed, leaving the SA with nine open seats.

After the new senators were sworn in at the Feb. 25 senate meeting, there were 36 members in the 45-seat body.

aving a full senate is always important, but “it’s not as important now as it is at the beginning of the year,” SA Vice President Steve Coloia said.

Galvin Kennedy of District 3, Stacey Hartzer of District 5 and John Yeager of District 2 resigned during the past three weeks, Senate Speaker John Fallon said.

“I doubt we will ever have a full body under the current districting system,” Fallon said.

Michael Magdich was appointed to District 3 and John Nisivaco was appointed to District 2.

There are two vacancies in District 1, three in District 3 and four in District 5.

“Some people get tired at the end of the semester,” Coloia said.

Kennedy was one of the original petitioners to remove SA President Huda Scheidelman from office Feb. 18. “Some people might think the reason I resigned was because the impeachment did not go through. But it went through adequately and that is not the reason for my resignation.”

Kennedy, along with six other senators, submitted an impeachment petition to Scheidelman in January. However, the senate never voted on Scheidelman’s removal because the motion was withdrawn before the vote was taken.

The current appointment process to fill vacancies “needs to be discussed,” Fallon said.

According to SA Bylaws, the SA must advertise for five days when attempting to fill a vacant senate seat. At the end of that period, officials must conduct interviews with all the applicants.

The interviews are conducted by the SA president, minority relations adviser and senate speaker. The most qualified applicant is suggested to the senate and must be approved by two-thirds of the senate.

“The whole appointment process takes up a lot of time,” Scheidelman said.