About a month ago I ran into an old friend of mine who asked me if I had heard about his latest “stunt.”

I hadn’t, but since this particular friend is a prominent member of the Government of the Student Body Senate who enjoys making his political points with a flair, I guessed it wouldn’t be long before I, and everyone else on campus, heard of his latest stunt.

Mark Nimmer looked at me with a gleam in his eye and a smile on his face and said, “I’m running for minority senator.”

Mark has been the subject of many nasty letters to the editor, the criticism of his GSB colleagues and a very misleading and unfair editorial written by the Daily Editorial Board.

I was particularly offended by the Daily editorial which stated that Mark “can’t be trusted,” and accused him of being “sneaky.”

This is baffling. Mark has stated very clearly that he is running for minority senator so he can have the seat eliminated. He believes that political offices designated for minorities are wrong, and at the federal level, the Supreme Court agrees with him.

There’s nothing sneaky about that. He has told us exactly what he is doing and why he is doing it. You may not agree with him, but that doesn’t mean he is sneaky or dishonest. I have known him for years, and I know he is neither of those things.

So give the guy a break. And while you’re at it, give Casey Powers a break, too. He is running for an International student seat on the senate. He has taken a lot of heat for this from the ISU community, especially from international students.

If those students would care to look at the ballot that was printed in Tuesday’s Daily, (Feb. 25) they might notice that Powers is the only student on the ballot for an international student seat on the senate. Some write-in candidates have surfaced to keep Powers from winning the seat, so at least give Powers credit for giving international students a kick in the pants that they obviously needed.

The most laughable part of this whole controversy is the theory advanced by Senator Jamey Hansen that Powers and Nimmer are part of some conspiracy to get more conservatives elected to the senate.

In order to vote for an international student or minority student seat, you must give up your vote in your college. The conspiracy theory says that international and minority students, in order to defend their seats from the barbarians, must give up their vote in their college. That means the conservatives would sweep into power because, as we all know, all international and minority students are liberals.

Well, the conservatives certainly wouldn’t have much trouble taking over the Family and Consumer Sciences or Veterinary Medicine seats, because no one is on the ballot for them. And the three graduate student seats will almost certainly go conservative, because no one bothered to get on the ballot for them either.

I’m not sure what the political orientations of Matt Ostanik and Jennifer LeAnn Johnson are, but since they are the only people on the ballot for the Design and Education seats respectively, the smart money is on them to win those seats.

You see, this is where Nimmer is right and all his critics are wrong. Racial set-asides for legislative positions were created with the idea that minorities could not get elected in a fair election because they are minorities.

At the GSB level, the seats for minorities, international students, non-traditional students and students with disabilities were created to ensure that those students would be represented on the senate. But no one could possibly be excluded from election to the GSB Senate because not enough people are running for the seats.

When you go to vote in the GSB election, look at the ballot and remember this: Most people get elected to the GSB senate because they took the time to fill out the paper work and get on the ballot.

Let’s say you live off campus. When you look at the ballot, you will notice there are five people running for nine seats. Who are you going to vote for? At the very least, you will probably vote for the five people who showed the initiative to get on the ballot, even though you probably don’t know anything about them. Why take the time to campaign when you can win just by getting on the ballot?

Guess how many people are on the ballot for the TRA seat? Zero. USAC? Zero. Buchanan/Westgate? Zero. Disabilities? Zero.

If a minority student or a disabled student had filled out the paperwork to get on the ballot for the TRA seat, they would win because they would be the only one on the ballot.

There are only two people on the ballot for the Minority seat. If such a big deal had not been made about Nimmer being white, he probably would have won because his name is first on the ballot.

Attend a GSB senate meeting and within ten minutes it will become painfully obvious that just about anyone can get elected to the senate. Until students show more interest in serving on the GSB senate, seats set aside for special groups are unnecessary.

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Steven Martens is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Cedar Rapids.