A Government of the Student Body Supreme Court ruling has resulted in the elimination of GSB specialty seats. The results of a constitutional question from the 2001 GSB General Election were reinterpreted by the court, which led to the elimination of seats.

During the 2001 election, 2,582 students voted “yes” to a question that would change the infrastructure of GSB – one of which was the elimination of the specialty seats. Two thousand three hundred twenty students voted “no,” and more than 1,300 abstained from the vote. The referendum didn’t pass last year because of a discrepancy over the term “majority.” But now, the Supreme Court ruled that each question on the ballot is its own separate election, and thus, the court ruled that the referendum actually did pass.

GSB eliminated senators who represented nontraditional students, students with disabilities, international students and American ethnic minority students. Three of those representatives were named to the GSB executive cabinet – where they will not have voting privileges – but the move hasn’t silenced criticism.

“Our voices are being stripped out of GSB,” said Rafael Fernandez, former international students senator.

His concern is valid. If there is no senator to represent those students, how will their concerns be addressed in the decision-making process? When student fees are allocated to certain groups who no longer have a senator working for them, what will prevent those groups from receiving little to no funding?

Students would then have to turn to their off-campus or college senators for representation.

And the entire referendum process in question, as a whole, has problems. The question concerning the elimination of the specialty seats was packaged with a confusing group of constitutional questions regarding the infrastructure of GSB.

The Supreme Court’s decision was not based on ideological opinions regarding the necessity of the specialty seats. It was a constitutional matter that they dealt with accordingly. If you disagree with the decision and feel the seats are necessary, there is room for action.

The future of specialty seats in GSB is still up in the air. They aren’t gone forever; the court just found that the student body voted in the last election to have them eliminated. If students truly feel as though they are not being represented adequately and need them back, they should say something. There should be a campaign to bring them back.

Then again, if there isn’t much concern over their elimination, they won’t return. Election results from this past election showed very little interest in specialty seats, with very few students voting in the elections of those senators.

The future of GSB specialty seats is in students’ hands. And only time will tell if students believe the seats need to be brought back.

editorialboard: Andrea Hauser, Tim Paluch, Michelle Kann, Charlie Weaver, Omar Tesdell