The Government of the Student Body elections are just around the corner, and I have seen the election cycle plenty of times over the years. Each candidate will claim to serve the students and tell them to get involved and vote, that the voice of the student body matters. Some people might remark about how GSB is pointless, full of would-be politicians. After the elections, others will comment about student apathy and low voter turnout. During following year, GSB might do some noteworthy things that might end up in the Iowa State Daily. But little, if any, positive change is felt by the student body. Another year passes, and the GSB elections are held again. Rinse. Repeat.

Student apathy toward GSB is justified. Despite all the campaign rhetoric and what’s reported in the Daily, GSB does not actively serve the students. GSB has a lackluster record of dealing with important issues that concern the student body. GSB claims to be the voice of the student body. If so, the powers that be must not hear its whisper. The average student must sense this problem. This would account for both the low participation and high turn-over rate in student government. Why get involved in petty politics when their voices are not heard?

Believe it or not, the system is not flawed. This is exactly how GSB is supposed to work. GSB’s main purpose is to redistribute students fees and restructure itself. We see this in their legislation. I’m sure, however, that some people wish that the GSB would fight to give the student body a voice in issues like the Campustown revitalization, student housing and the rising cost of tuition. I know this because I used to be one of those people.

My days as an idealist came to an end years ago during a cold winter day on the floor of the Iowa Legislature. Members of both GSB and Inter-Residence Hall Association had come to the State Capitol to lobby against the proposed budget cuts to state universities. These cuts would (and did) lead to double-digit tuition hikes at Iowa State. I was with IRHA at the time, and we spoke to a nearly empty room. Only the state legislators who supported us were there, and they numbered only a handful. I think I said some important things through my stuttering and stammering (it was my first time public speaking). But it did not matter. It was late afternoon, and I was the last to speak. A winter storm was coming. As we hurried back to Ames, the blizzard cloaked I-35 in a disenchanted night.

To the generation of Iowa State students who have since dealt with the skyrocketing tuition costs under the Geoffroy administration, I must apologize: We failed.

This was not the only disenchantment I experienced during my time in student government. Yet even though the deck was stacked against us at the Iowa Legislature, often we were our own worst enemies. On the ride back to Ames, one IRHA representative kept sticking his finger in my face while arguing with me, and I kept trying to break it. In both the IRHA and GSB, people constantly talked about impeachment. Another time I remember a GSB senator fantasizing about dissolving IRHA. And I certainly was no angel. Once I asked a candidate for GSB President: “Are you running as a joke? Because I don’t want to throw my vote away.” (He didn’t win.)

So why am I bringing up all of this past history? Each GSB election brings different actors, but their performance is still the same. Talk of impeachment still seems constant within GSB. Type in “GSB impeachment” into the Daily’s archive search engine and you’ll get about 49 pages of articles dating back to about 1996. A cursory scan of the legislation found on the website reveals that a lot of bills deal with the seating of senators and changes to by-laws.

Even current GSB presidential candidate Jared Knight has said that GSB senators don’t talk to constituents. Last April, GSB passed a bill requiring senators to reach out to students by attending at least one student organization meeting a month. Finally, where was GSB when Iowa State and the city of Ames partnered with Lane4 to demolish/revitalize Campustown? Supporting them. A picture of Hunter Harris, a Lane4 representative, is still upon GSB’s website.

Thus, if GSB does not (or cannot) serve the student body, regardless of what its members say, then what is its purpose? GSB exists for two reasons: to distribute student fees and to restructure itself. But these are only secondary to the real purpose behind GSB’s existence, which I will reveal in my next column.