Editor’s Note:

This letter expresses just one of many views.

GSB will hold its meeting tonight at 7 p.m. but you still have time to voice your opinion.

Submit your thoughts to us and we’ll update throughout the day online!

Tonight Government of the Student Body will have a bill in front of them to allocate funds for the Cyclone Cinema.

I have worked extensively on this project with Tom Danielson, GSB finance director, as well as a dedicated taskforce of GSB Senators, students, and tireless staff members.

I believe that what they will have before them will be the single most impactful piece of legislation that the student body has reviewed in my time in the position.

We are proposing to offer students the service of a movie theater in Campustown, for a 1 dollar admission charge, you will be able to enjoy film programming in Campustown Thursday through Sunday evenings.

We think that this proposal is a powerful first step toward having a culturally rich, safe and treasured Campustown.

The theater is also a chance for collaboration between the students, city, and university administration.

The surplus student activity fees of students from my past years will fund most of the initial $365,000 renovation and operating costs.

Alumni I’ve spoken to that went to a midnight movie or had a first date at the Varsity would be proud to have this be their legacy to the Iowa State students.

We estimate that the needed subsidy from GSB each year (after our revenues from 1 dollar admission, reasonably priced concessions and other revenue opportunities) would be about $60,000, or about 3.5 percent of the total GSB budget for a year.

A great deal of that money will go to paying our student staff who need flexible jobs close to campus.

It is because this project is broad, important and dramatic that it has been long, arduous and difficult.

Tom and I have worked for 8 months in meetings with students, staff, Deans, developers, Realtors, administration, skeptics and supporters to develop the most responsible and beneficial plan would could bring to the GSB.

After eight months, we have that proposal – all 30 pages of it. We understand that students do not have the time or will to read a 30 page proposal debating everything from costs of seats to learning objectives of a graduate assistant.

I believe that’s why every spring we, the students (or the few of us who vote), elect representatives whom we charge to consider complex and detailed issues and render a decision.

We also charge them with making a reasonable effort to inform us of these issues, be it through constituency councils, emails or a friendly chat in a late night study session.

I hope your Senator has taken the opportunity to do that.

GSB Senators have had our proposal and legislation authored by Senators Maly, Ryherd and Tompkins for a month now.

As a taskforce, we’ve presented three consecutive weeks on the project. We have fielded questions, gone through two committees, and the bill will be up for final consideration tomorrow.

It is my understanding that some senators are worried about proceeding with a vote. Some fear we have not received enough student feedback: That’s probably true. Some fear there are loose ends in the project and that’s definitely true.

But I would counter saying that we will never have enough student feedback or loose ends tied up to vote on those merits.

Vote on the merits that you have a chance to create a legacy at Iowa State that truly came from the students, not a trend in a higher education journal or a decision of a student affairs administrator.

We maintain good relations with administrators, staff and faculty; we must work with them collaboratively if we expect to get anything done. Some of them we consider very close allies.

Some of them, I can attest, we consider friends.

But our closeness aside, the GSB simply votes for the voice of the students, not for the administration, faculty, and staff of Iowa State.

After all, the GSB is the voice of the students.

In fact, GSB contains some of the students most skeptical of student fee spending, and most sensitive to student financial troubles.

There have been multiple Senators initially skeptical or outright opposed to this project that now support it.

If the most well informed, skeptical people on campus can support a project of this magnitude in good faith, then I think there is a great opportunity before us.

In a time where our universities are in chaos, be a voice of clarity that the student can speak for themselves in proposing activities and institutions that benefit the student body.

When students come back in August let them see an institution on the other side of Lincoln Way that belongs to them.

Finally, let them go see a movie; because, in times of budget crisises, wars and political petiness, I could stand to see a good film.

This letter was written by Ian Ringgenberg, a graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies.