UF's Student Senate completed its annual reapportionment hearings Tuesday night in preparation for the fall Student Government election. Several colleges and living districts will see slight changes in representation.
Every year, the Senate passes a reapportionment bill that states what zip codes compose a Senate district.
The bill also determines how many senators will represent each district or college, said Ryland Rogers, chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
In the fall, 47 senators - half the Senate - who represent on-campus residence areas and off-campus housing districts are elected.
Rogers said this semester's election should be relatively unaffected by the changes, though the 32610 zip code was removed from District A and 32604 was removed from District B.
The first zip code is for Shands Hospital and the latter is for post office boxes at the post office behind The Swamp Restaurant, Rogers said.
No students lived in either zip code, but some use them for mail purposes, he said.
Both zip codes will be moved to District E, which is usually reserved for zip codes that aren't heavily populated by students.
In addition, UF's School of Forest Resources and Conservation lost its one Senate seat, as did the School of Natural Resources and Environment.
The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences will absorb one of these seats, and graduate students will receive the other.
Rogers said the changes won't be felt until the spring, because the 47 senators representing colleges and schools are elected during that semester.In other election news, Supervisor of Elections Sarah Krantz gave senators a brief update on the upcoming fall election. Krantz said she was looking into an electronic check-in to save students time, such as allowing students to swipe their Gator 1 Cards.
However, she said the system was too pricey for this semester.
The fall election would probably be an all-paper election, she added.
Krantz said four parties so far have registered for the election, though she did not name any specific party.
The deadline for party registration is Thursday, she said. Potential candidates will begin the qualification process Friday.
