The main course of last night's Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) meeting may have been officer elections, but candidate speeches weren't the only dishing going on.

A motion to establish a voting senate seat for graduate students with physical disabilities passed overwhelmingly, but not without controversy.

"I don't see how it's fair that someone can get special representation by being one sort of person rather than another sort of person," said philosophy graduate student and Senator Jeramy Gee. "Why does one group get to have special representation?"

Gee has also opposed similar resolutions that have established voting senate seats for different ethnic and minority groups in the GPSS. The seats are established by way of a GPSS by-law stating that any traditionally underrepresented minority group can petition to have a senate position.

Aside from unfairness, Gee cited several reasons for his objection to the resolution. He said that because there are only three students with disabilities in the graduate program, there is a danger of overrepresentation in addition to imbalance as a result of overlapping interests.

"Overrepresentation is the peripheral issue," Gee said. "Suppose someone from the law department from one of these [minority] groups get onto senate. ... Different schools might be overrepresented [if that were the case]."

Native American Senator Karen Capuder, an anthropology graduate student, objected to Gee's claims on the senate floor while the bill was at stake.

"My relations come first," she said. "I do not represent the anthropology department. It's possible for someone to maintain objectivity in [a situation where interests might overlap]."

Although she represents the anthropology graduate program, Capuder said, "My indigenous identity comes first."

Support for the bill overwhelmed the opposition, with only three objections and three abstentions during the voting.

GPSS President Kimberly Friese reinforced the senate's support for the bill when all was said and done.

"GPSS as a body is an all-inclusive organization," she said. "Anyone who feels underrepresented should have the ability to get representation."

Reach reporter Jeff Tripoli at news@thedaily.washington.edu.