After two days of voting Wednesday and Thursday, the Student Government Association acquired three new senators in their runoff elections.

Runoffs took place in the School of Social Work, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Design and the Grady College of Journalism.

Nathaniel Hightower defeated Jaime Ayers in the runoff election 58 to 22 for the School of Social Work.

“My major focus was to speak to grad students and appeal to them so that I at least knew all students would vote and listened to my concerns,” Hightower said.

Hightower spent the majority of the general election in the hospital, leaving him unable to campaign.

“I was more nervous this time because the second time around I had to meet with people face to face. It was more stressful and I had to be more giving of myself,” he said.

Despite her loss, Ayers said she will continue to be involved in SGA.

“The biggest thing would be to work on the service certificate. This is something I sat down with the dean to discuss,” she said. “I want a more connectedness with the School of Social Work in general. Most people don’t know about the School of Social Work.

Elizabeth Mulkey won the runoff against Andrew Heffernan, 48 to 45. Mulkey said participating in the runoff election “was a little easier.”

“Since it was not during the main election, people weren’t concerned with the runoffs and I wasn’t campaigning for my party, just for myself,” she said.

Though Mulkey said the runoffs were easier, she was more nervous the second time around.

“I got more nervous [Thursday] because there were only three runoff elections, and I felt like everyone knew I was running,” she said.

Under her term as senator, Mulkey wants to get her college more involved in SGA.

“There aren’t that many Ag students that care about SGA,” she said. “While in office I want to make more classes count for credit in the C0ollege of Ag.”

David Koonin won the University Council seat for Grady College against fellow senator Katie Dean, 52 to 13.

Koonin hopes to make Grady more transparent to other schools and colleges at the University and turn the economic downturn into a positive thing.

“Grady is unique in that it is isolated. I want to increase the transparency within Grady and get jobs for students with a bad economy,” he said. “I want to also increase internship networking throughout the Southeast.”

Koonin said the University is facing a lot of ongoing problems with its budget.

“It is a trickle down effect for the University,” he said. “We have to get creative with ways to find a solution to budget cuts.”