At last night's meeting, some members of the Michigan Student Assembly could not find seats around the table and were forced to sit in window sills or stand up.
The lack of seating was caused by the filling of six previously vacant seats.
MSA held two meetings last night: one to bid farewell to the six members leaving the assembly and another to initiate the 12 newly elected representatives.
"It was a little overwhelming," said incoming LSA Rep. Jennifer Genovese. "There was a little more debate and politics involved in the process than I was expecting."
Outgoing LSA Rep. Amer Zhar, who was unsuccessful in his bid for re-election, said he would still be active in assembly politics.
"I think I got a lot done, but I would have liked to do more," Zhar said. "I will still be involved. One thing I learned from being on MSA is it's easier to stir things up from the outside than from the inside sometimes."
Zhar used the constituents' time portion of the second meeting to discuss upcoming programs he will work on in the next few months.
In an effort to make the newly elected assembly members feel comfortable, LSA Rep. Willie Jurkiewicz established an assembly buddy system in which veteran members will act as mentors for those new to the process.
"The purpose of this program is so (new representatives) don't have to sink or swim - you can hit the ground running," Jurkiewicz said.
But some new members said they had already experienced the assembly firsthand.
"I've been to some meetings in the past and this one was true to form," said incoming LSA Rep. Doug Yatter, who served as vice chair for MSA's Academic Affairs Commission this term.
"I must admit I was a little nervous speaking in front of the whole assembly - but I'm glad to be here and I look forward to speaking more during future meetings," he said.
The new members were treated to a lengthy debate on ammending a proposal that calls for the creation of a student regent.
LSA Rep. Andy Schor, who drafted the original motion, said the measure would have to be reworded to allow all voters in the state to vote in student regent races.
"Legally we have to do this - I don't want to see this struck down because of a loophole," Schor said. "I'd love to have just students vote for a student regent, but we can't do that."
But other assembly members said statewide elections would mean that the state political parties would chose potential candidates.
"The two parties will pick a candidate and one will win," said Engineering Rep. David Burden. "The students won't be electing a student regent, the two political parties will."
LSA Rep. Dan Serota said a student candidate would not be able to get on the ballot.
"It's impossible for a student to get on a statewide ballot," said LSA Rep. Dan Serota. "A student won't get the necessary signatures - you'd have a better chance of running against Carl Levin because at least then students would care."
After more than 30 minutes of discussion, the measure passed 27-7.
Schor said now that the measure has been accepted, assembly members have their work cut out for them.
"In the next six months we need to get 260,000 signatures to get this on a (statewide) ballot," Schor said. "This will be my life during the next six months."