Distributing student activity fees, funding student clubs and organizations, addressing students’ needs and implementing new programs to benefit students are just a few of the many things the Government of the Student Body does.

The mission of the GSB “is to strengthen students’ voices and enhance students’ experiences at Iowa State through active representation, engagement, and support,” according to their web site.

GSB senators work to fulfill the GSB’s mission by going out and speaking with their constituents-the group of students they represent.

The student body is divided into separate constituencies, depending on which college they are enrolled in and where they live. These constituencies include:

• Agriculture and Life Sciences

• Business

• Design

• Engineering

• Human Sciences

• Liberal Arts and Sciences

• Graduate

• Veterinary Medicine

• Campustown

• Frederiksen Court

• Interfraternity

• Off campus

• Panhellenic

• Inter-Residence Hall Association

• Schilleter University Village

The number of senators that represent each constituency is based on the number of students within the constituency group: one senator for every 1,500 students.

For a list of current GSB senators, visit the GSB web site.

The GSB consists of three branches-executive, legislative and judicial.

Executive

• President Dakota Hoben, Vice President Jared Knight, and cabinet

• Works on projects that are of interest to students

Legislative

• Senators

• Meets once per week to discuss student issues and make decisions on funding requests from student clubs and organizations

Judicial

• Nine Supreme Court members

• Settle issues between students and student organizations

What GSB does:

• Funding-distribute student activity fees to student clubs and organizations through special allocations process in the spring and regular allocations process in the fall

• Campus projects and initiatives-such projects areas include diversity, academic affairs, student affairs and information technology. Past projects include the Sodas 4 Sobers project, Multicultural Center and online GSB Rideshare Board

• Policies for the Student Body

• University and city committees-GSB members bring students’ perspectives about issues being discussed to university and city committees those GSB members serve on.

• Communication with ISU Administration

• Lobbying and communication with legislators-Each year, GSB members, ISU Ambassadors and students travel to the capital to lobby legislators about issues pertaining to ISU students during Regent’s Day. Past issues have included tuition increases and university budget cuts.

• Support campus events

• Participate in volunteer and fundraising activities

How to get involved:

• Campaign to become a GSB executive or senator during March. Openings for vacant senate seats may open throughout the academic year and a list of vacancies can be found on the GSB web site

• Supreme Court and election commission members must be interviewed by the GSB president and then confirmed by the Senate

• All other openings for positions on the GSB can be found on the GSB web site

NOTE: Information obtained from the GSB web site, http://www.gsb.iastate.edu/.

GSB president

Dakota Hoben, senior in agricultural business, is the current president of the GSB.

Hoben’s involvement in GSB began his sophomore year when he was elected to fill a vacant off-campus senator position. Since then, he has served as a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences senator and worked on the tenant-landlord website. He has also served on the CALS Dean’s student budget committee and as an ambassador for the college.

GSB vice president

Jared Knight, junior in political science, serves alongside Hoben as GSB vice president.

Knight’s GSB career began the first week of his freshman year when he saw a sign for GSB. He went to the GSB website and applied for a Supreme Court justice opening and got it. He currently serves as an Inter-Residence Hall Association senator, a position that allows him to connect residence hall students with GSB. Knight has also been involved with the Transportation Advisory Committee, the President’s Naming Committee and the Committee on Lectures.

Both Hoben and Knight want to focus on three C’s during the 2011-2012 academic year-classrooms, clubs, community.

Classrooms

They want to implement a Dead Week policy to decrease the stress load for students during the last two weeks of the semester.

Another initiative they have is to allow students make up a scheduled exam they missed due to the attendance of a university activity.

Clubs

A bill requiring all GSB senators to attend at least one student organization or club meeting each month was passed during the last GSB meeting of the 2010-2011 academic year.

This bill fulfills Hoben and Knight’s goal of increasing interaction between the student body and GSB.

Community

Encouraging students to participate in community service both on campus and in Ames is another initiative Hoben and Knight have.

GSB finance director

Katie Benton, junior in political science, is the GSB finance director.

Benton has spent the last two years serving on GSB. She began as an at-large member on the finance committee her freshman year. She then served as GSB treasurer during her sophomore year.

Benton’s responsibilities as finance director include looking over funding requests and working with the finance committee to allocate funds to student clubs and organizations on campus.

The goals Benton has for this year’s finance committee include:

• Meeting with clubs and organizations individually so when those groups come to GSB with funding requests, the finance committee will know what the groups’ goals and priorities in order to make a better informed decision on how much to fund them

• Hold open forums where students can ask questions about the allocations processes and funding requests

• Encourage at-large finance committee members to speak up during meetings

Benton encourages students who are interested in serving on the GSB finance committee to apply for an at-large position on the committee at the beginning of the fall semester.