The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate moved one step closer to filling its nine empty seats by appointing a new secretary at last night's meeting.

Brad Hoagland (sophomore-information sciences and technology) will assume the duties of senate secretary. He also serves as Academic Assembly vice president.

Seven of the remaining open slots are senate seats, which opened after several early semester resignations. Senate President Erin Ferris downplayed the resignations, saying they happen every year. Only 11 senators resigned last year, she added.

The other opening, senate parliamentarian, has not yet been appointed. The parliamentarian cannot be a senator.

The Senate has been placing ads in The Daily Collegian to find applicants. Ferris said she will start actively looking for someone if no one applies by next Wednesday.

The parliamentarian's job is to advise senators on Robert's Rules of Order, a set of guidelines outlining the parliamentary procedure followed at senate meetings.

This is not the first time the Senate has operated without a parliamentarian. Last year's parliamentarian, Matt Midles, was unable to attend most senate meetings because of a class conflict.

Eventually, a temporary appointment was made until the conflict was resolved.

USG President Ian Rosenberger said he thought USG Vice President Takkeem Morgan has helped prevent problems from the parliamentarian's absence because senators respect his decisions and authority. Ferris said while she would like to fill the positions soon, she is unconcerned that they remain empty.

Galen Foulke, senate vice president, said he is not worried about the vacancies but said he thinks the Senate will operate more effectively once a parliamentarian is in place.

"I don't think it's impacting much at all, we have a lot of [senators] who know Robert's Rules pretty well," he said. "Takkeem also does a great job of running meetings."

Town Sen. Michael Yohannan said the parliamentarian's absence has not been detrimental to the Senate, but finding one soon would be best.

"When so many senators are new, there can be confusion as to procedure," he said.

While many students said they were either uninformed or did not care about the resignations and openings, Josh Carmichael (junior-civil engineering) said he felt otherwise. "It worries me a little that everyone is resigning," he said. "It definitely seems like there's something wrong."

Foulke said he hopes a parliamentarian will be found soon. "[It] needs to be filled, in the eventuality that any questions should arise."