The presence of specialty seats in the Government of the Student Body Senate is rapidly developing into the one of the most divisive issues of the year.

Some say the seats are the only way to ensure that minority groups are fairly represented on the Senate. Others say the seats swing the pendulum too far. Students will vote on the issue later this week when they go to the polls to ratify or turn down the proposed new GSB Constitution.

Students will be asked two questions:

1. Do you approve of the draft constitution created and passed by the Constitutional Convention?

2. If the new constitution is approved, do you wish to keep special population area representation, including seats for American ethnic minority students, nontraditional students, international students, and students with disabilities?

There are six specialty seats on the Senate: two international, two nontraditional, one minority and one disability.

Mike Pogge, LAS senator and secretary of the Constitutional Convention, said the convention was put in an unfair position when the issue came up at Sunday night’s meeting. Pogge said he feels the convention was forced to put the second question on the election ballot by a select group of people who decided to join the convention at the last minute.

“We had eight people who came [Sunday] night who had never come to a Constitutional Convention meeting,” Pogge said. “They basically insulted everything the convention had done.”

Lo Wai Sze, an international student and member of the Constitutional Convention, said he doesn’t think the senators who want to eliminate specialty seats are doing what is in the best interest of the student body. He said most students want to have specialty seats because they understand some groups of people need more representation than others.

Jamey Hansen, Constitutional Convention chairman, said students who were elected as specialty senators for next year will lose their positions on the Senate if the second question passes.

Milton McGriff, a nontraditional senator who was re-elected to next year’s Senate, said if he’s kicked off the Senate next year he might take the issue to court. “I feel sad that we even have to discuss if we are entitled to specialty seats,” McGriff said. “I think we will win because most of Iowa State is not as narrow- minded as the senators trying to eliminate specialty seats. I would like to see a big turnout from people who are specialty, minority, international and progressive white people.”

Mark Nimmer, off-campus, is one of the senators leading the drive to eliminate the specialty seats. Nimmer ran a protest campaign as a minority candidate in February’s GSB elections. He lost.

“They [the seats] represent individuals on things they can’t control,” Nimmer said. “Realize the U.S. Supreme Court has said that you can’t have seats representing people based on race.”

Nimmer said even if the proposal fails, it will be just a matter of time before specialty seats will be eliminated.

Voter turnout is a determining factor for both sides. It takes a turnout of 20 percent of the student body, about 4,700 voters, to make it a valid election.

Nimmer said if every student votes, a highly unlikely notion, the seats would be eliminated.

As a 30-something married mother, Jillene Hamill-Wilson, nontraditional, said it would be a great loss if specialty seats were eliminated. “If I could pick one place to be represented it would be specialty,” she said.