Last year, the Judicial branch of Iowa State’s Government of the Student Body resigned after a dispute over funding from the other branches of GSB. The Supreme Court resigned in the middle of the night and announced its decision to do so through a letter to the editor to the Daily that came in during the last few weeks of school.

Although there was a clear dispute among different branches and even different members of GSB, the judicial branch of the GSB needs to be filled. If this were in Washington D.C., there is no way that the Supreme Court justices would be able to resign and leave the legislative and executive branches to fend for themselves.

This goes for the other two branches of government as well. If there is not going to be a resolution for the conflict with the retired Supreme Court justices, there should be a plan in place to replace them with new justices. It is a shame to see that an agreement between the three branches could not be reached before the start of the 2014-15 school year, and it is a problem about which we students should care deeply.

GSB oversees most — if not all — of the student organizations on Iowa State’s campus and makes decisions concerning funding for those organizations. We deserve to be governed by a fair system and have a guarantee that one branch of GSB will not overpower either of the other two. It’s hard to believe that we have this when one entire branch is completely nonexistent for the time being. 

Funding seemed to be the main issue behind the resignation. The Supreme Court judicials wanted funding for visits to law school professors, judges and courts around Iowa. When the funding for these activities was not approved by the other branches of the government, the justices resigned. Though funding is a critical issue to the judicial branch, it does not seem like it would be enough to cause an entire branch of the government to resign.

Jonathan Sukup, a former member of the judicial branch of GSB, said that he thinks that funding was a major issue. Each branch should be equal to the others.

There are surely more underlying issues within GSB. If the decision was solely made on the lack of funding, the resignation seems like it would be a rather dramatic gesture. GSB needs to take into consideration what the real and important issues at hand are: governing and supporting ISU students.

GSB President Hillary Kletscher will be choosing new GSB Supreme Court justices through a resume and interview process. “We want to take students from [each] grade and from all different backgrounds to create the new branch of justices,” Kletscher said.

We students must rise to the occasion and show GSB — as well as the rest of the student-run organizations — that it is important for our leaders to do just that: lead. If we have branches of our government falling through the cracks, we need to make sure that the lack of communication is resolved and that we can depend on our governing student body to come back as strong as ever this year and show us that these discrepancies can be solved.

In a time where GSB is down, we need to stand up and show our fellow students that we can all be leaders. The student government at this university has some issues that need to be resolved and we need to hold them to doing just that. A government is only as strong as its weakest branch, or in this case, lack there of.

If you are interested in taking charge and becoming a member of the GSB Supreme Court, please contact GSB President Hillary Kletscher at [email protected]