“Student Government is simple; it’s students serving students,” said Austin Graber, the president of the Iowa State Student Government.

Student Government is a group of student leaders elected by their peers to represent Iowa State’s eight colleges, students who live in the residence halls, students that live off-campus and Greek life.

At the beginning of every Student Government meeting, the vice president reads a statement that says, “All students are members of the student government and are encouraged to participate.” This statement encourages students, both in attendance at the meeting and not in attendance, to speak up on issues they feel strongly about or ideas that they have.

If students want to be involved in Student Government but aren’t elected to a Senatorial position, there are still ways to get involved.

There are many committees within Student Government that students can apply to serve on, such as Civic Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion, Public Relations and Sustainability, among others. For interested students, go to stugov.iastate.edu to apply.

For incoming freshman, Graber suggests also looking into Freshman Council.

“It gives you a sneak peak of what Student Government is like, but it’s on a different level,” Graber said. “Freshman Council works on Jingle Jog, they do the Volleybrawl and different events to see what it’s like running a meeting, participating in a meeting, how to vote, all that stuff.”

On the other side of “students serving students,” Student Government serves as a resource to help students, clubs and campus organizations. For the 850+ clubs and organizations on campus, Student Government helps provide funding through annual allocations as well as funding requests throughout the school year.

For individual students, senators in Student Government serve as their voice on Student Government and are able to advocate for issues on their behalf.

“If you’re a College of Business student and you say, ‘Hey, I have an issue within the College of Business, I want to talk to my senator,’ feel free to reach out to them.” Graber said. “We have office hours that are dedicated to talking to students, so please reach out to us.”

Students are also invited to speak at Senate meetings during open forum to bring up issues they think are important for Student Government to hear about. Graber encourages students to speak up when they have an opinion on something, or to reach out to their senators to make their voices heard.

“We have a bigger say than we think we do,” Graber said. “When meeting with President Wintersteen and when meeting with Provost Wickert, in those meetings they really like to hear what the student perspective is. And I feel like if we didn’t have Student Government, we wouldn’t have that perspective.”