Only two positions will be contested in this year’s Student Government Association election, scheduled for April 12-13, which will elect Senate and the three SGA Executive Committee members. All senators serve one-year terms, which means all seats are up for election next month.

Of the 22 Senate seats, one race in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts is contested, with all other races in Senate being unopposed.

The College of Humanities and Fine Arts is allotted three Senate seats based on the number of students with majors falling under the college’s oversight, and six candidates are running for those three seats.

Even after next month’s elections, one seat will remain vacant in the College of Business and Public Affairs, as well as the College of Eucation and Behavioral Sciences.

Only three candidates are running from Business and Public Affairs, although the SGA Constitution currently requires four members from that college. Five candidates are running from Education and Behavioral Sciences, but the Constitution requires seven representatives from that college. No one is running to represent the College of Bachelor of University Studies and online students, even though one seat was added for BUS and New College representation in the 2005 election.

In last year’s election, only one Senate race was contested, which was for the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences. One vacancy was created in Humanities and Fine Arts because of a deficiency of candidates.

The position of student body president is also contested in this year’s election.

Sen. Erin Chambers will be facing incumbent President James Orr for the presidency.

President Orr served his first term as president this year as a member of the Effective Connections Party, which picked up all three positions on the Executive Committee.

The Executive Committee comprises the president, vice president and secretary general.

Chambers, who represents the College of Humanities and Fine Arts as a first-term senator, is a member of the UTMFirst Party. However, Chambers is running for the presidency as an independent.

Effective Connections is the only political party fielding candidates in this year’s election, and 2006 is Effective Connections’ second year of operation.

Effective Connections is running candidates in all three Executive Committee positions. James Orr will represent the party as their presidential nominee, Chris Cherry will represent the party unopposed for vice president, and Lindsey Sutherland will represent the party unopposed for secretary general.

Effective Connections is also endorsing eight senate candidates.