{"id":394573,"date":"2026-09-09T08:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T08:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394573\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T08:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T08:34:22","slug":"sg-members-address-senate-vacancies-midterm-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394573\/","title":{"rendered":"SG members address Senate vacancies, midterm elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>With eight seats vacant on USF SG\u2019s Senate, current members encourage USF students to run in the midterm elections. ORACLE PHOTO\/AUDREY KOCZANSKI<\/p>\n

As the seventh consolidated term of the USF Student Government (SG) Senate<\/a> begins, eight seats are vacant.<\/p>\n

The Senate is the highest body in the legislative branch of USF Student Government and is responsible for shaping student policy, appropriating the student budget, and representing the USF student body, according to SG\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 40 Senate seats are divided among the three USF campuses by population: 31 for Tampa, five<\/a> for St. Petersburg and four for Sarasota-Manatee, according to SG<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arjun Manohar, Senate president and public health graduate student, said the vacancies are caused mainly by resignations and occasional low candidate turnout, rather than major problems or widespread lack of interest.<\/p>\n

He said that of the vacancies, three are in Tampa, two are in St. Petersburg and three are in Sarasota-Manatee.<\/p>\n

\u201c[In Tampa,] one person resigned over the summer, one person resigned the first week of school, and then one person just resigned recently,\u201d Manohar said.<\/p>\n

While all seats were filled in the Tampa general election, the St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee campuses were not.<\/p>\n

\u201c[In St. Pete,] one person resigned over the summer because they were appointed to a cabinet position in the executive cabinet,\u201d Manohar said. \u201cThe other seat was just not filled in the election term last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that low candidate turnout is a bigger issue on the St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee campuses, where four of the five seats were not filled because no students ran for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that\u2019s happened in the past as well, where we just had not had enough candidates who [ran] on those campuses,\u201d Manohar said. \u201cI\u2019m not really sure the reason why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manohar said the Student Government process requires all empty seats to be filled by a student body election, so appointments and temporary seats are not granted.<\/p>\n

Related: USF Student Government members, constituents share plans and hopes for upcoming school year after inauguration ceremony<\/a><\/p>\n

Manohar said the midterm election<\/a>, which will fill some of these vacancies, is from Oct. 13 to Oct. 14.<\/p>\n

The midterm elections can only fill the St. Petersburg seats and one of the Tampa seats, Manohar said.<\/p>\n

The other seats were vacated after the deadline to report them for the midterms and will not be available in the election.<\/p>\n

The three seats allocated for Sarasota-Manatee will remain vacant until changes to the constitution<\/a> end their allocation to the campus.<\/p>\n

As the Sarasota-Manatee campus prepares to join the New College of Florida<\/a>, a special transition task force in the Senate prepares to change the structure of student government, Manohar said.<\/p>\n

Despite these vacancies, the Senate can operate as long as 70% or more of seats are filled and will continue operating as usual as the midterm elections approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have these vacancies, but at the end of the day, we will still be working to serve the student body and do the best of our ability,\u201d Manohar said.<\/p>\n

While the Senate can run as usual, Manohar said the vacancies still mean fewer voices and less representation in the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat vacancy is someone who\u2019s not going to be serving in that role, so that does obviously remove some voices from the decisions that we\u2019re making,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To make sure all students can be heard, the Student Government is preparing for the upcoming midterm elections, where students can run to fill available seats for the remainder of the term.<\/p>\n

Ana Clara Andreoli, Senate policy chair and junior marketing major, said the midterm process is more laid-back than most students would believe.<\/p>\n

Andreoli ran in the 2025 midterm election and later in the general election, and is currently serving her second semester in the Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ran in the general election this past semester, and it was way bigger, way more stressful because all the positions are getting renewed,\u201d Andreoli said. \u201cBut midterm elections were really chill, a really nice process. Everyone was really respectful. I didn\u2019t experience any bad things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andreoli said Student Government wants the midterm process to be as accessible as possible to students, including freshmen and new students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really advertised,\u201d Andreoli said. \u201cIt\u2019s open for all students, so students that just joined USF, like freshmen, can run if they want to. It\u2019s really open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andreoli said she is looking forward to the midterm elections and is confident students will show up and fill the available seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a chance [for new people to have the opportunity to run],\u201d Andreoli said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good opportunity for them to get involved in something important on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: USF SG releases certified general election results\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Applications to run in the election are open until Sept. 19 at 12:00 a.m., according to SG\u2019s BullsConnect.<\/a><\/p>\n

Andreoli wants to encourage new students to get involved, either by attending Senate meetings, which are open to students, or by running in the midterms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have interest in Student Government, if you want to get involved with USF, run,\u201d Andreoli said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity; you will meet great people [and] you will make a difference at USF.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nithya Reddy Pothula, Tampa campus council chair and junior computer science major, said she wants students to be more involved in Student Government and to know SG is there to support students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen many of the students; they\u2019re not really aware of Student Government, and many of the students don\u2019t really vote,\u201d Pothula said. \u201cI would encourage everyone to just come and vote because we are here to represent and advocate for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pothula said the Student Government is actively working to close the communication gap between the student body and SG.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have actively tried to fill that gap,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have been active on social media, and we have been planning ways on how we can interact more with the student body and make them aware of the resources and Student Government.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Pothula, the most important part of the midterms is ensuring the Student Senate gets representation from all students and that all voices are heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are missing a few voices, but I think that we will have a fuller and complete Senate after the midterms,\u201d Pothula said.\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With eight seats vacant on USF SG\u2019s Senate, current members encourage USF students to run in the midterm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-394573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}