The Government of the Student Body Senate agreed to fund groups and events such as the Cyclone Stampede Rodeo, ISU Students for Life and Society of Automotive Engineers Supermileage.

The ISU Rodeo Club’s Cyclone Stampede Rodeo members requested to use $2,563.15 of GSB’s student organization debt reserve account.

The event will be Oct. 5 in the new Jeff and Deb Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center south of campus.

The reason for the request from debt reserves is because of the lack of sponsorship for the rodeo, members said. The first weekend of October is typically rainy, meaning sponsors do not receive the turnout they would expect. 

“We don’t have a very good history for it being a good turnout. This happens so soon to the beginning of the school year that everyone’s been doing sponsorships in summer and spring. We’re just waiting for them to come in for the fall,” said Kara Christensen, senior in animal science and member of the ISU Rodeo Club. “We need to be out of debt now so we can get campaigning.”

The Senate agreed to the funding if the group pays $672.83 every semester until fall 2016.

Another organization that received funding was ISU Students for Life, a pro-life student group. The group requested $3,566.64 for travel expenses and registration fees so they would be able to attend the National March for Life Conference in District of Columbia. The group had tried funding from private sources but said those sources were not dependable.

Due to a bylaw detailing funding, some senators were concerned about funding an organization with a political intent. However, the ISU Students for Life members said they did not affiliate with any specific political party or campaign.

Some senators mentioned that the Senate had funded groups that represented controversial topics in the past, so there was no reason to deny funding for ISU Students for Life. 

“We’ve made that a political issue over the years,” said Speaker of the Senate Gabe Walsh on pro-life organizations. “If we had a group in here that said, ‘Let’s recycle,’ we could say that’s a liberal issue.”

Society of Automotive Engineers Supermileage Club requested and received $795.26 to compete in a student design competition to build a super-efficient vehicle in Marshall, Mich.

Because of its budgeting issues, Student Counseling Services was granted $3,524. One of the 19 staff psychologists has different rules for benefits. The request was made to make up for the benefits funding Student Counseling Services had provided the psychologist last year.

In addition, Student Counseling Services would use $1,000 of the approved allocation for professional development conferences.