“In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat persons equally, we must treat them differently.”

— George Orwell, “1984”

Oops, my mistake. That quote was not Orwellian “doublespeak”; instead, it was Justice Harry Blackmun from his dissent of the 1978 affirmative action case of the University of California vs. Bakke.

Strange as arguments supporting affirmative action have sometimes been, there is one continual spark of sense. Even those who support affirmative action recognize that separating people based on race or sex is a regrettable policy. It is like the abortion issue. Some people think there is a reason for it to exist, but virtually no one thinks it is a wonderful thing. When the need for affirmative action is gone, say its supporters, it will be discontinued.

Will the pledge to end an affirmative action program when it is no longer needed be honored? Here is a chance to find out. I invite the proponents of affirmative action to join me in calling for the elimination of the specialty seats on the GSB senate.

In addition to the regular seats on GSB, six additional seats exist for “special populations.” These six seats are known as the specialty seats.

The specialty seats have been very controversial because they are determined by race, age, national origin and disability. These are the same classifications of students that the university says it will not discriminate against. Those who oppose the specialty seats do so because they believe all students should be included in the regular senate seats. They should be included regardless of their race, age, disability, or the country they are from.

The specialty seats are also opposed because of the question of legality. For example, Congress has attempted to draw congressional districts based on race in the past. However, these districts were challenged in the courts and found to be unconstitutional in the case of Shaw vs Hunt.

The Supreme Court has also heard cases involving student governments. There was a case about a student government fairly recently involving funding religious organizations on college campuses. The result of that case caused GSB, along with other student governments around the country, to change their policies. Last semester, GSB changed its bylaws and now funds religious campus organizations. Before being forced to comply with the Supreme Court ruling, the bylaws prohibited funding religious campus organizations. A court case over GSB’s specialty seats could cost the student government and the university many thousands of dollars in legal expenses.

But most importantly, specialty seats are simply not needed. There is no compelling evidence that removing the specialty seats will lead to lesser representation for the respective special populations. In the last election, there were many seats that only one person was running for and about 10 seats that nobody ran for. The only thing necessary to have won one of those uncontested seats is being able to breathe. This is hardly the same as getting into Harvard.

The minority seat on the GSB senate is a good example of why specialty seats are not needed. The winner of the minority seat in the election for next year’s GSB senate was Yasmin Blackburn. She has been a very effective and active senator this year and has often been quoted by the Daily on GSB issues. Even in a competitive election, she would have likely been elected to the senate for next year without the existence of the specialty seats. However, as mentioned already, the election was not all that competitive.

Senator Blackburn is a grad student and lives off campus. In the last election, there were two grad seats that did not have a ballot candidate. There were also four off-campus seats that nobody ran for. This means Senator Blackburn had six regular senate seats available to run for and would have been absolutely assured of winning any of them.

Contrary to what justice Blackmun argued, some students actually think that in order to treat persons equally, we must treat them equally. It is time to get rid of the GSB specialty seats. It is time to have the regular GSB seats include everyone.

Benjamin Studenski is a junior in industrial engineering from Hastings, Minn.