The Government of the Student Body, an extensive student organization made up of an executive, legislative and judicial branch, has had a busy semester. Several projects have been completed throughout the last few months.

Among these are several ventures undertaken by the executive branch. Neal Wiebers, director of sustainability, worked with Green Umbrella, a student organization, to coordinate events for Sustainability Day, where GSB set up its own booth.

Other sustainability efforts include reaching approval from the Senate to fund two of five new solar-powered recycling compacters to be set up around campus.

“[These] outdoor recycling units will let the students be able to start living a greener lifestyle and make recycling be a choice for students rather than just a minor option,” Wiebers said.

Jacob Thomas and Lizzy Bertelson, co-directors of ISU Ambassadors, also worked on several projects. Having been an election year, the group spent time focused on encouraging student voters by hosting voter registration drives.

“We teamed up with the League of Women Voters in order to increase turnout. Overall, we registered over 400 students, and had approximately 50 absentees filled out,” Thomas said.

Nyajuok Deng, Director of Diversity, worked with the International Students and Scholars Office to begin an international mentorship program. The program is intended to help ease international students’ transition to life in the United States.

“I definitely want to see [the program] growing next year. The spring is going to be our pilot program, so there’s definitely going to be a smaller number of students, but after that we’re hoping for success in growing that program,” Deng said.

President of GSB Jared Knight listed the opening of the Gilman Hall testing center and the launch of the MyState application for smart phones among other successes for the executive branch.

He went on to add some of the Senate’s achievements, including working with the library administration to get new chairs in the library lobby, and the permanent bike pump approved to be outside the Memorial Union.

“I am particularly proud of the progress we have made with the Dead Week policy and the excused absence make-up policy… Working closely with the Academic Affairs Council, we’ve been able to make real progress in the wording of the policy and hope to see a positive impact on students’ Dead Week experiences as a result in coming semesters,” said GSB Vice President Katharine Brown.

The GSB Senate has reached a point at which discussions among senators often extend meetings until late into Wednesday nights, but Brown said she does not believe it’s necessarily a sign of inefficiency.

“This semester, I think Senate’s biggest accomplishment has been their success in elevating the level of debate and discussion. The Senators have made a real effort to vocalize the opinions of their constituents during discussion of bills, and I have enjoyed seeing dissenting opinions being more readily voiced,” Brown said.

Although a lot of the projects started or continued this semester have yet to be wrapped up, GSB will have the opportunity to keep working on them next semester, despite losing several of its members due to graduation and other reasons.

“I think GSB has a promising future as long as there is active student participation,” Thomas said. “The Government of the Student Body at Iowa State is no different from any other government in the [United States] in the fact that it takes active participation to be successful. If students continue to use GSB as a tool to better Iowa State and surrounding communities, I think GSB will continue to find success.”