Graduate students may find their Student Senate seats cut in half after next week's Senate meeting.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Jason Tiemeier presented the proposed Reapportionment for 2012, which changes the number of senators allotted for different areas.
The proposal would cut the number of graduate student Senate seats from 10 to five. Five of the seats are currently open.
Reapportionment also would drop the number of pharmacy school senators from two to one. The six open Senate seats for the spring would increase the representatives for Agriculture and Life Sciences from three to five, freshmen from three to five and sophomores from six to eight.
Fall elections are based on residence halls and off-campus housing districts, and Spring elections are based on colleges.
Off-campus voting districts would also change with the proposal.
Independent Sen. Carly Wilson said she was upset that senators would approve the Reapportionment without approval from the Judiciary Committee.
Tiemeier, a member of the Unite Party, said although the Judiciary Committee usually reviews the Reapportionment each year, there were not enough committee members at Sunday's meeting to approve it.
Tiemeier said Reapportionment is due two weeks before voting. Final approval will be voted on at the Senate meeting next week, which is two weeks before the first day of Student Body elections.
"We're literally running out of time, so it had to be done," he said.
Wilson said Unite Party members decreased seats in areas usually held by independent senators to give their party members more seats.
Student Body Supreme Court Chief Justice Matt Michel said he wants graduate students to be involved, but he agreed that some cuts may be necessary.
He pointed out that graduate students are already functioning with only five senators representing them.
"We're not even halfway through the term of people who were elected in the spring," he said.
