On the eve of Student Senate elections, the student government’s legislative branch finds itself without a leader.

Senate Speaker Gema Gaete-Tapia announced her resignation in an interview with the Northern Star Friday. In a prepared statement, she indicated that she had done all she could for the Student Association and planned on focusing more attention on local Latino issues.

“It’s time to put my focus somewhere else right now,” said Gaete-Tapia, a transfer student who has served in student government since the fall of 1999.

Gaete-Tapia served as senate speaker for the 2000-01 school year, with duties that included organizing the weekly senate meetings and acclimating new senators to proper procedures. Senators re-elected her at the end of the spring semester, but her community involvement during the summer opened her eyes to opportunities outside the SA.

While many students baked in the sun, Gaete-Tapia participated in a hunger strike near her home in the Chicagoland area. The drastic action helped in the appropriation of $5 million for a new high school in the Latino community, she said.

“When you’re on a hunger strike, you humble yourself so much,” the junior history and sociology major said. “And you can see effective things to do in other ways. Now, you see what really matters.”

The future

What will matter for the as-yet-unelected senate remains to be seen. Gaete-Tapia leaves a group that once again will not be filled.

Under the ward system, eight candidates from each of five wards are named to the senate through a general student election. However, two wards don’t even have eight candidates in the running. That means as long as those candidates vote for themselves, they win a seat.

And those representatives will be without a speaker for at least the first meeting. One of the first orders of business will have to be picking Gaete-Tapia’s successor — a process she will help out with by appearing at the first meeting.

Also, Gaete-Tapia’s presence will be felt each and every week with the change in schedule for senate meetings. Now, elected senators will meet at 7 p.m. on Mondays, a change from the usual 6 p.m. on Sundays.

The change was made to accommodate commuter students, Gaete-Tapia said, and it is hoped the change will not keep too many students from contributing to student government.

“If they have a class on Monday nights, maybe do it next semester,” she said. “Then they can work around the meetings. And if senators don’t like the meeting time, they can easily change it if it doesn’t work.”

And as for Gaete-Tapia, she already has a few new projects on her horizon. She’s involved in the Oct. 25 production of “El Teatro Campesino (The Farmworker Theater),” a play about the struggle of migrant workers.

“And that’s just the beginning …” she said.