The Student Government Association will begin the spring semester lacking nine senators, a loss of nearly 25 percent of the student-comprised governing body. Lauren Buck, Svetozar Dimitrov, John Colin Quinn, Joe Sheridan and Jane Zucker are studying abroad and will thus be unable to participate in SGA, Vice-President DaVaughn Vincent-Bryan said. Lizzy Mazer, Justin Senni, Christina Wehry and Ben Wolfson resigned for other reasons, which they either declined to comment on or were not availible for comment. Three new senators, Bryce Jones, Matt McLaughlin and John Steele Taylor were ap?pointed at the end of the fall semester to fill some of the anticipated voids on the student senate. They will begin their terms this week. According to Vincent-Bryan, a total of seven vacancies – three on-campus and four off-campus -need to be filled. Students will choose the senators to fill these spots in up?coming mid-term elections, to take place on January 22. Senior Lizzy Mazer was the chair of SGA’s Public Relations committee. She is the third committee chair to either step down or be voted out of office since the Ram-Vincent-Bryan Administration took office late last spring. “Lizzy Mazer was an excellent and effective Senator and served the SGA Senate with class and sensibility,” senior Scott McCarty, chair of the SGA Committee on Legislative Action, said. Mazer was McCarty’s running mate in his bid for the SGA presidency last spring. Junior Ryan Krodel will fill Mazer’s position as chair of the PR committee. He said no overarching changes would be made to the committee under his authority. Krodel said that as chair, he plans to integrate SGA with digital media technologies in the Davis Center, “in order to make SGA more accessible to students.” McCarty said that Krodel, a second semester SGA senator, would be “very new to the job,” but “will pick up where Lizzy Mazer left off.” Candidates to run in mid-term elections will begin campaigning today. In order to be eligible to run, candidates are required to obtain 80 signatures from undergraduate students. SGA elections are privately funded, with a $50 limit on expenditures for any one candidate. SGA organizations are prohibited from contributing to any candidate. Additionally, campaigners are not allowed within 100 feet of computer labs, in order to maintain a fair electronic voting procedure.