Members of the Government of the Student Body attended the Big 12 Student Government Conference last week and have returned with new ideas for Iowa State, including ways to change the current GSB election process.

GSB Vice President Hillary Kletscher said the current length of Iowa State’s election cycle is uncommon compared to other Big 12 schools.

“Six weeks of campaigning is exhausting, and so learning about how those other universities work and still get higher percentage voter turnout than we do was enlightening,” Kletscher said.

She said it is easier for a student to campaign hard for two weeks, opposed to campaigning for six weeks.

Kletscher also said other schools tend to have fewer restrictions for those campaigning.

“Candidates can go into classrooms if their professor allows it,” Kletscher said. “They don’t require as many signatures, because that’s something that can take a significant amount of time.”

Kletscher also touched on the ability of other universities to campaign while the polls are open, something that violates the current GSB election code at Iowa State.

“Other universities are allowed to campaign while the polls are open, and when we [informed them] that we can’t do that at Iowa State, they were shocked, to say the least,” Kletscher said.

Kletscher said the universities with higher voter turnout tend to have higher spending limits but also tend to have incentives for voting.

“[Incentives are] something that other universities have done, but that’s also something that I’m not interested in seeing at Iowa State, because I think having that nonbribe, fair vote is really important,” Kletscher said.

Sen. Matthew Kerns, who attended the conference, said that in the past, ideas implemented at Iowa State have come after attending the Big 12 conference.

“[Kansas] has a student outreach program, that’s something we brought back from last years. Basically a better way of making sure that senators are essentially doing our job, representing students and reaching out, making sure that we’re always in constant connection with the students,” Kerns said.

Kletscher said something else that could be implemented at Iowa State is a change in how office hours work for senators. Currently, GSB senators are required to have in-office hours and one out-of-office hour per week.

“Instead of being in our office, we actually have a setup so we have a table somewhere or something like that,” Kletscher said. “So you know that as a student you can go to this location, and there will be someone from GSB there.”

Kerns said other universities have different government structures.

“Some of them have bicameral legislative branches,” Kerns said. “A bill has to pass both the undergraduate and the graduate senate.”

Kerns said some universities have different executive structures.

“Some of them have, instead of just a president, vice president, they’ll have a vice president of the interior and a vice president of the exterior,” Kerns said.

In addition to Kletscher and Kerns, President Spencer Hughes, Finance Director Dan Rediske, Chief of Staff Travis Reed, and Director of Special Events Amanda Loomis all attended the event.