Student Government Association installed two holdover senators at its last meeting, falling one senator short of the three-person requirement spelled out in the SGA Legislative Journal.

The Journal states, “At the last regular meeting of February, the Senate itself shall elect three (3) persons by a majority vote to be designated as Holdover Senators. These persons shall serve on the Senate as Senators-at-large and are elected from Senate membership.”

This isn’t the first time the Senate has failed to elect three holdover senators. SGA President Luis Carbajal cited a lack of interest as the cause of the problem this year and said something needs to change.

He’s right.

Holdover senators perform a critical role in SGA proceedings. Not only do they add continuity to the Senate, but they also comprise one half of the Election Commission and serve as (hopefully) non-biased parties, as they are prohibited from running for other positions that same year.

Senators who were elected by the student body in the previous Senate election and have served the entire year are eligible to be holdover senators—the problem arises when too few eligible senators are interested.

The presence of all three holdover senators is in the student body’s best interest and senators need to step up to the plate. 

Absent that, the Senate needs to find a way to better enforce its own mandates. Whether that means loosening the requirements (perhaps any senator who has served a full semester could be eligible) or imposing penalties when the Senate doesn’t meet the three-person requisite is up to SGA, but it’s time they finally take action to remedy this recurring problem.