Before the Government of the Student Body wrapped up its work for the fall semester, senators were faced with approving the apportionment of senate seats for the 2000-2001 academic year.

The number of senate seats for each residency and college category are determined each year in proportion to the number of students associated with each category. The apportionment must be approved annually by the senate before the end of the fall semester.

The numbers of students in each college and residence arrangement are derived from the official university “count day,” conducted each fall by the Registrar’s Office.

This year, a discrepancy in the numbers sparked debate on the senate floor. According to university records, there are no in-session addresses for 1,147 ISU students.

“It’s not surprising to me,” said Registrar Kathleen Jones. “We encourage students to give us their address, but they don’t always do it right away, and they may choose not to tell us at all.”

In addition, students have an option under federal law to keep their personal information, such as their addresses, private for administrative purposes only.

Since accurate records are kept for on-campus and greek residence systems, the reapportionment bill added these students into the off-campus category. The extra students justified an additional off-campus senate seat.

Several senators took issue with assuming the “missing” students lived off campus, maintaining that students will not be sufficiently represented.

“To make the assumption they all live off campus is wrong and asinine,” said Jonathon Weaver, TRA. “How will the off-campus senators represent [the students’] needs and concerns if they have no way to find out how they feel about issues?”

The debate highlighted three options for dealing with the students. In addition to including the students in the off-campus number, completely leaving the students out of the residence calculation was proposed. The third option would have proportionally distributed the students among the eight residence categories.

Alex Olson, off campus, pointed out that the number of students without in-session addresses was about the same as the number of students who voted in the last GSB election. That number of people, he said, was too large not to be accounted for.

“It is my personal belief that our bylaws and constitution are clear,” Olson said.

The bill, after being re-submitted to account for mathematical errors, was passed in its original form, which added the students in question to the off-campus number. This decision, backed by the GSB Constitution, settled the matter by the deadline, averting a special session meeting before the end of the semester.