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."

The inciting predicament for the UJ case isn't notably different from someone in East Quad wanting to run for the position of senator for Rosenthal Quad. If such a person really yearned to be Rosenthal Quad senator, then that individual would need to move to Rosenthal and become a part of that constituency. Of course there is an obvious overarching difference between the positions of a quad senator and the senator for racial minority students: They're different classes of senator.

The electoral constituencies of all senators, except that of the senators-at-large, who are elected by all students, and the senator for racial minority students, are based on either class year (including a Senator for the Transitional Year Program) or place of residency. All Brandeis students fall into one slot in each of those two basic categories: year and residency. But the constituency for the senator for racial minority students, as it stands, is an elective constituency. Anyone can join it.

This is different from gaining representation based on where you live or what year you graduate. The most important problem with creating this electoral constituency is that there are no parallel ones. Unlike quad and class senators, the racial minority group is in a category of electoral constituencies unto itself. Either you're in it, or you're not. It would be like granting senate representation to only certain quads or classes.

In reality, people who consider themselves racial minorities comprise a group, not an electoral constituency. Groups have interests, and in the case of racial minorities, the interests are of great importance to everyone. But it's still a group. It's only an electoral constituency once the Union Constitution grants it representation. This is fundamentally undemocratic.

The situation is even more undemocratic with regard to F-Board, in which one of the five representatives is the representative for racial minority students. In this situation, the voluntary electoral constituency is the only electoral constituency with its own representative.

But creating a voluntary electoral constituency doesn't really violate any official policies. If it were limited based on race, that'd be something. However, as it stands, that's a nonissue. The UJ needs to uphold the legitimacy of the two positions, but the Senate and student body do not. The Constitution needs some revision. The positions of senator for racial minority students and F-Board representative for racial minority students should be cut-in the appropriate manner.