An ISU student leader is trying to get support for a referendum that would allow students to decide whether specialty seats in the Government of the Student Body Senate should be eliminated.Rick Cordaro, Union Drive Association president, said he plans to circulate a petition that would put the question on the March 6-7 GSB general election ticket. If students support the referendum, the four specialty seats on GSB — American ethnic minority, disabilities, international and nontraditional — would be removed, which concerns many current senators.Cordaro needs to submit his petition, signed by at least 2,000 registered ISU students, by Feb. 26 to get the referendum on the ballot.His rationale, he said, is that students registered under those four categories receive a disproportionate amount of representation in the student government. The 50 registered specialty students, Cordaro said, get the same amount of representation as all 1,492 greek community students and 3,556 students in the business college.”The proposal will ask the student body if they are OK with that,” said Cordaro, former UDA senator.Because of the low registration and problems with the prior-registration process, he said, specialty seats have been a controversial issue among student leaders since they were created.”This would really let the students have the final say,” he said.However, current specialty seat senators said the needs of nontraditional, ethnic minority, students with disabilities and international students are not met by the residency and college senators.”In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need them,” said Jennifer Ray, American ethnic minority senator. “But this is Iowa State, and we need them. Those students need a senator who is working in their best interests.”If those seats are eliminated, she said, other senators will have to make a special effort to reach out to students “who don’t look like them,” she said.Cordaro said he thinks the issues faced by specialty students are important, and they do need representation — but not more than other students.