The Government of the Student Body will vote Wednesday on the proposal to lease the old Varsity Theater and turn it into a student-run dollar theatre. This will jointly benefit the ISU and Ames communities.

For the past six months, a task force of GSB and non-GSB members has been actively working on it, meeting with university administrators and residents of Campustown to discuss and shape the proposal. The bill to fund the dollar theater was first proposed to GSB four weeks ago and was supposed to be voted on last week.

However, the bill was postponed because senators felt that another week was necessary to talk to more students as many may not be fully informed about the proposal. Thus, in a final effort, we are providing the reasons that we believe the proposal should pass.

Over the last month, we have talked to our constituents about the proposal, and the responses we have received have been overwhelmingly positive. Not only will students be able to enjoy the convenience of having a theater across the street from campus, but also be able to enjoy it at subsidized prices. It will serve various other functions besides providing an alternative to the bars in Campustown. The theater will host speakers, university organization events, provide student jobs and be a much needed addition to Campustown.

The dollar theater will be a service provided to students by students rather than a business. Although it will have concessions and a small fee to watch movies, the theater’s primary goal will not be to make a profit. The funding for this is an aggregate of student fee monies from past alumni — students that knew the Varsity Theater as a part of their college experience. Any investment of this scale will come with risks, but we believe that strong support from students and administration will make this endeavor a success.

GSB has a unique opportunity when it comes to the dollar theater proposal. As members of GSB, we represent the students so that they can have an enjoyable college experience as a college student at Iowa State. It is not often that we are presented with a proposal with such great potential. Between passing funding bills and senate orders, GSB has few opportunities to affect such a significant impact the lives of students. This proposal gives us an opportunity to show the student body what their elected representatives can do for them.

Brian Guillaume LAS Senator and Sagar Chawla Inter-Resident Hall Association Senator