Nine petitions were submitted by Monday to the Student Association to fill the 17 existing vacancies in the 45-seat body.

The petitions were submitted by Steven Zarch, Monica Brace, Kathleen Rosenberg, Gavin Kemp and James Hollendonner of District 2; John Hughes, Gloria Pina and Richard Shippy of District 4 and Sadia Ahmed of District 5.

Candidates must file petitions with 200 signatures from their respective district.

SA members are relying on write-in candidates to fill the vacancies “largely because 200 signatures are a lot to get in a short amount of time,” SA President Huda Scheidelman said. Last semester, 17 senate seats were filled by write-in candidates.

Competition between candidates is likely to occur only in District 4 because it has one opening with four candidates. District 2 has six openings with four candidates and District 5 has five openings with one candidate. However, Districts 1 and 3 are without official candidates.

James Mertes is the sole appointee out of eight from last semester who plans to submit a petition. Mertes said he was misinformed of the petition deadline, which was originally 4:30 p.m. Monday. The deadline is now extended until 1 p.m. today, SA Election Commissioner Ray Callahan said.

Callahan called prospective candidates to inform them of the change, however SA Senate Speaker John Fallon was not aware of the change. Fallon told some interested students the petition deadline was Monday.

Another appointee, Ed Grasse from District 4, said he did not know appointed senators had to face the general election. “I was not informed of the election and I assumed that since I was there last semester, I’d be there again this semester.”

Scheidelman said appointed senators should have known about being subject to reappointment or general elections because “it’s in the bylaws.”