The Justice

This week, the Union Judiciary will hear a case regarding whether the positions of senator for racial minority students and Finance Board representative for racial minority students are inherently discriminatory and thus violations of University policy as well as the Union Constitution.

Under the present circumstances, I can hardly see how the justices could find the positions illegal. The positions are imprudent for a different reason-and should be abolished by constitutional revision-but they're not discriminatory as far as the UJ can be concerned.

The crux of the issue at hand regards the policy against discrimination outlined in the University's Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, which prohibits discrimination based on race. Initially, it seems that any position created specifically for racial minorities would automatically violate that clause, or similar clauses in federal law, which prohibit racial discrimination. But at Brandeis, every student has the opportunity to engage in what I call racial mobility. Anyone can claim to be any race or ethnicity-no questions asked.

Last year, Jonathan Kane '10, though ethnically Caucasian, ran for the position of senator for racial minority students after going to the Registrar's Office and simply changing his biodemographical information from "Caucasian" to "Other." Racial minority leaders on campus had no issue with his candidacy. If Kane truly wanted to represent that constituency, then his race was irrelevant.

The main complainant in the current UJ case, Gideon Klionsky '11, couldn't run for Senator for Racial Minority Students since he isn't registered as a racial minority. But because of the racial mobility available to students at this University, ethnicity did not directly prevent Klionsky from running for such a position. It was simply his lack of officially being a part of the racial minority electoral block, according to University records, which kept him from running. According to the Union Constitution: "A candidate for an office must be a voting member of the constituency that the office represents."

Continued...

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