Next year’s team of seven executives in Student Government Association is almost complete, but President-elect Mike Keller is still looking for one more.

The SGA  vice president of diversity position, one of six vice presidential positions, remains vacant because no one has applied.

While the position remains empty, the remaining vice presidential positions and parliamentarian position are filled.

Members of assembly appointed Scott Nemeth to act as the vice president of administration. Nemeth will also act as the chair of the Council on Presidential Affairs.

Members of assembly also appointed Derek Friederich to act as the vice president of finance. Friederich will oversee the budget and the grants committee.

Keller appointed Emily Burgoyne as vice president of public relations. Burgoyne will oversee the organization’s advertising.

Keller chose Stevan Tomich as next year’s vice president of operations. Tomich will oversee the SGA shuttle and the day-to-day operation of the organization.

Marielle Slagel was appointed by Keller to act as the vice president of programming. She will oversee more than half of SGA’s budget, which funds SGA-sponsored events throughout the year.

Keller appointed Craig Fisher to act as parliamentarian. Fisher will oversee the procedure in weekly assembly.

One of the requirements of running for the empty VP of Diversity position is serving on REACH in the past, which means the applicant pool is small, Keller said.

PuLSE Office Director and SGA adviser Caroline Huck-Watson said this position is very important to both the university and the community.

“This position is vital,” Huck-Watson said. “This person provides the opportunity to highlight different views and perspectives, which is important to Butler and the college experience.”

Keller said there was a lack of interest and time among the eligible candidates.

Due to this vacancy, Keller said he has opened up the applicant pool to the rest of campus.

“If we are able to find a strong candidate, we’ll have to go through assembly to have him or her voted on and approved,” Keller said.

So far, Keller said he has received contacts from three students.

Keller said he believes the lack of candidates is related to REACH’s target audience.

“REACH tends to focus on a similar group,” Keller said. “There needs to be a bigger focus in order to attract all of campus.”

Huck-Watson   said REACH  needs to find different ways to communicate with students to help them receive  information about REACH.

“There are common ways to get out information on REACH to the students, but REACH is also open to other ways to provide students with information,” Huck-Watson said.

This situation is not unprecedented.

A similar situation occurred last year, and SGA responded with a similar solution, Keller said.

Keller said this does not hurt his executive board or his ability to work with them.

“This gives me the opportunity to look at my board, see what’s lacking, and see what I can add,” Keller said.

Huck-Watson said she also views this as a positive situation.

“This will allow an interested person to  participate in SGA and get  a leadership position,” Huck-Watson said.

Keller said he is most interested in discussing new ideas and new ways of doing things with his executive board.

“I have a lot of ideas and am very idea-focused,” Keller said.

Keller said he wants to make SGA more accessible through publicizing office hours more and encouraging student attendance at SGA meetings.

None of this year’s Executive Board members will be returning to posts next year, including SGA presidential runner-up and current vice president of operations Kelsa Reynolds.

Before last Wednesday’s announcement, current SGA President Al Carroll said that he wasn’t sure if he would hold a spot on the executive board.

“I will serve at the pleasure of the next president,” Carroll said in an interview last month. “It’s more important that I help the next president be successful regardless of me. This is about making sure that this is a positive organization and not that Al is the leader.”

In an email to The Collegian, Carroll said that he would still be involved next year.

“I have no intention of spending my senior year too far away from the action,” Carroll wrote. “I will evaluate where I can best serve this organization and then apply. I do not anticipate a third year on SGA exec, but I will apply to serve in some capacity.”

As the semester draws to a close, the short break allows Student Government Association Executive Board members time to reflect on their progress so far.

Executive members said the biggest improvement to SGA is opening the weekly Assembly meetings to the entire campus.

Vice president of operations Kelsa Reynolds said, “We have had the highest attendance at the SGA Assembly meetings that I can remember over the past three years. This is a direct result of assembly being open to anyone on campus.”

Dan Schramm, vice president of finance, said the inclusion of students outside of representatives from the campus organizations has been a key factor in generating more participation and input from the larger Butler community.

“I think opening up assembly to the entire campus has been a big improvement on years past,” he said. “If students want to take advantage of it, the opportunity is there for them to be more involved with SGA’s decision-making process.”

Schramm said within the executive board, the dynamic works well because people are not afraid to challenge or improve upon new ideas.

“I think there is the perfect amount of disagreement on the board to produce good ideas without the massive inefficiency that typically characterizes bureaucracy,” he said.

Schramm said he would like to see more participation on the financial aspect of the organization as well as giving a monthly budget update as outlined in the SGA constitution.

“I hope next semester we get a lot more participation in grants, and we end up using all of the money that we have allotted to the grants line item,” he said.

Schramm said he was previously unaware the budgets updates were supposed to occur on a monthly basis and that the update would be starting with the first Assembly meeting next semester.

Vice president of programming Jon Himes said though the executive board was passionate about constantly improving the organization, he thought there could be a better way of involving general Assembly members.

“I would like to see Assembly become more engaged, and I think that SGA Exec can do a better job of engaging Assembly members,” he said.

Himes said the strengths of the executive board lie in their innovative pursuits to improve the campus atmosphere for students.

“I think this Exec board is very creative and willing to try new things,” he said. “For example, we sought out and implemented the SGA Shuttle tracking system, enabling students to see where the shuttle is at all times.”

Student body president Al Carroll said he thought the direction SGA took this semester was a positive move toward making sure more people were getting involved and having a voice in the organization.

Carroll said his wish for the spring semester is to ensure the organization is having meaningful conversations within their meeting times because he felt discussion sometimes fell short on deeper issues. On the flip side, he said he thought the executive officers did a better job of balancing the opportunity to share opinions, but ensuring the meetings weren’t a waste of students’ time.

Carroll said the most difficult obstacle was searching the span of SGA’s reach and understanding what was going on at the outskirts of the organization.

“Sometimes it’s hard to know everything that’s going on, on all levels,” he said. “Each board has individual committees and groups and it’s kind of hard to know how far SGA’s reach goes.”

Carroll said he has interest in rerunning for his role as student body president for the 2012-2013 school year, assuming the students would want him in that position again.

“It’s hard to say,” he said. “It’s really hard to say.  As far as running again, it’s something I’ve thought about and something I’m not ready to rule out quite yet. As far as me being at the helm of this organization, I think I could handle another year.  But it depends a lot on whether students on campus want me to go another round.”

Carroll said he’s going to take the next few weeks to ask where he can best serve the university. Whether that involves another presidency or taking a “backseat position,” he isn’t sure, but he said he will serve the students in some capacity.