The Student Government has initiated a membership drive, a new venture aimed at filling open positions within and related to Student Government.

Student Body President Caleb Judy said the drive has already started.

“Caleb really wants to get other people involved in Student Government,” said Amanda Sartore, student vice president for academic affairs.

Six different departments within Student Government have positions that need to be filled, Judy said.

The branches with openings are the student action team, Apportionment Board, student deans, student body elections commission, student senate and student senate committees.

Detailed descriptions of the general duties and responsibilities of each division are listed on the back of the Student Government application.

“Some (positions) are unlimited in the number of people we can take and some require a certain number of people,” Judy said.

One student dean is needed for each of the five academic colleges including the graduate program.

“I need all new student deans,” Sartore said. “I’ve already had people contact me about being student deans.” In previous years, the student executive officers often appointed friends and favored Student Senate members to fill any open positions, Sartore said.

“I’m not going to appoint my friends because that’s not fair,” Sartore said.

Judy said student interest in the open positions has been encouraging. “We’ve had a lot of people come up to us about it,” Judy said.

Sartore is also optimistic.

“We know people want to get involved (in Student Government),” Sartore said. “This way we can try to involve as many people as we can by promoting it.”

Promotion efforts for the membership drive include attending Recognized Student Organization meetings and freshmen University Foundation classes to attract new members. Efforts also include displaying advertisements in the Daily Eastern News later this week and having senate members post fliers throughout campus.

Judy and Sartore both said this year’s efforts to recruit new members exceeds actions from last year.

“Last year was not as focused,” Judy said. “It was just articles in the paper and word of mouth.”

“They’ll probably get more applications than positions available,” said senate member Jeff Collier. “That’s how it’s worked in the past.” Students can pick up and submit applications in the Student Activities Center located on the second floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Applications will be due by 4 p.m. Sept. 12.

Niki Jensen can be reached at [email protected]