After nearly four hours of sometimes emotional debate at Wednesday’s meeting the Government of the Student Body voted 20-17 in favor of relocating the Memorial Union’s Browsing Library and Chapel.

By passing the resolution, written by Sen. Ginger Cowger, GSB approved the Union Board of Director’s tentative decision to relocate the Browsing Library and Chapel within the Union, and said those plans should be included in the Union’s final renovation plan.

The Union Board of Directors will make the final decision. It is expected to vote on the fate of the two areas Dec. 7.

The Senate’s efforts to move the resolution to a vote were stalled twice when two amendments — one offered by Sen. Ryan Pletka to table the bill, and an amendment to postpone the vote until Nov. 29, GSB’s last meeting of the semester, offered by Sen. Robert Livingston — failed.

After the second failed amendment, Sen. Matthew Goodman lashed out at the Senate. “I’d like to congratulate the Senate on saying, ‘We don’t care what the students think,'” he said in jest.

Goodman, also a Student Union Board representative, said SUB sent out a summary to every ISU student with an e-mail account explaining why renovations were under consideration and asked for input.

More than 80 percent of students who responded said they would like to keep the Browsing Library and the Chapel where they are, he said.

“There’s an appreciable number of people who want to keep this place,” Goodman said. Goodman then grabbed two chairs from the audience, one representing how someone feels after listening to a moving intellectual speech and one representing how someone feels after being spiritually moved.

“In between them are the men and women who gave their lives for their country,” he said, raising his arms between the two chairs.

Some have argued the Browsing Library and Chapel shouldn’t be moved because the Union’s original architect wanted a library and chapel below the war memorial on the first floor. The Union’s historical value should be maintained, supporters have said.

“Men and women fought so you don’t speak German today,” said Sen. Stein Avloes, a Norwegian citizen who served in Norway’s air force. “It’s a disgrace that we’re even discussing this. We shouldn’t trample on the memories of those who served this country.”

Sen. Brian Alan, also a war veteran, agreed.

“When you go to war, you go with the understanding that people back home will support you,” he said. “A memorial is built to stand the test of time. A memorial is there until the building is demolished.”

But Timothy Rinkleff, a senior in mechanical engineering, said the Union should first be looked upon as a Union, and secondly as a living war memorial.

Milton McGriff, a senior in English who works in the Browsing Library, echoed Rinkleff’s remarks.

“You can’t relocate the Browsing Library. You can have another library, but you can’t have a living memorial,” he said.

Scott Terpkosh, an SUB/GSB Computer Lab administrator, broke into tears while lobbying to keep the two areas as they are.

“If this goes through, I won’t let people forget,” he said. “I will stop every group and tell them what went on here. When I have gone, I want what I went through to keep this on my tombstone.”

Sen. Travis Keister proposed an amendment that called for a memorial to be placed in remembrance of the Browsing Library and the Chapel if they are relocated.

He said the memorial could be anything from a plaque to a statue. The amendment failed 22-12.