From seasoned Undergraduate Council (UC) veterans to fresh-faced crustacean enthusiasts, 17 students hoping to fill the UC’s eight vacated seats kicked off their respective campaigns on Saturday.

Voting begins tomorrow at noon, and will close on Friday, but for two candidates, the race is already over. Maurice S. Chen ’06 and James “Christian” Ayers ’07, who were running unopposed, already joined the UC as official members at last night’s meeting.

Chen, a resident of Leverett House, said he thinks that students are already so involved in their extracurriculars by second semester that few people want to run for the UC.

But President Matthew J. Glazer ’06 said that he thought the number of candidates was good for a replacement election.

Current UC members helped to publicize the race by sending out announcements on House e-mail lists and spreading the word to friends.

However, two candidates focused on reinstating Lobster Night in campus dining halls needed little encouragement to run.

“This is a single issue candidacy. I’m not trying to confuse my message. I’m going to stay on topic and my topic is Lobster Night,” said Paul B. Davis ’07 of Kirkland House. Davis formed the facebook.com group “Harvard Coalition for the Return of Lobster Night” which boasts a membership of 189 students. He plans to launch a poster campaign soon.

Kevin K.P. Chan ’07 is running from Lowell House on a similar seafood platform.

In contrast to these newcomers, two UC veterans, Jack P. McCambridge ’06 and Polly W. Klyce ’06, appeared on the election scene from their respective Houses, Winthrop and Lowell. McCambridge is the former chair of the Campus Life Committee (CLC) and a current member of the Harvard Concert Commission. Klyce served on CLC for one semester last year.

“I haven’t started campaigning yet,” said McCambridge who lost his seat last fall after not campaigning. “I hope to get around to that.”

One of the seats that the new crop of candidates hopes to fill was vacated last week by former Financial Committee (FiCom) chair Teo P. Nicolais ’06.

Nicolais, who lost his bid for UC president last semster, resigned his seat, announcing on the UC open list that he would be “exploring the world,” on a year-long leave of absence from Harvard.

Blake M. Kurisu ’07, the newly elected chair of FiCom, bemoans the fact that Nicolais will not be around to show him the ropes. “It’s been a tough week,” Kurisu said. “I mean Teo really kind of built the grants system from the ground up and to try to learn it all has been tough.”

When the polls close this Friday, newly elected UC representatives will face newcomer’s issues similar to Kurisu’s.

With completely new leadership and an ambitious agenda for the coming months—including drafting a position paper to outline students’ opinion on the upcoming curricular review, increasing representatives’ accountability to their districts, and vetting major structural changes to the UC—inexperienced representatives will have much to familiarize themselves with.

At least one new representative, Ayers, wide-eyed after his first meeting last night, said he is looking forward to the challenge.

“I thought it was very interesting,” he said.

—Staff writer Liz C. Goodwin can be reached at goodwin@fas.harvard.edu.