With the economic condition of Iowa and the second wave of budget cuts hitting the university, funding for academic organizations within the engineering college has been stretched thin.

In reaction to this situation, the Engineering Student Council is trying to change the financial policy of the Government of the Student Body to make more funding available.

“The funding is there. It’s just that we don’t have access to it,” said Erin Painter, vice president of outreach for the Engineering Student Council and sophomore in civil engineering.

After eight weeks of working with GSB to solve this problem, a proposal was passed by the GSB Finance Committee on Monday.

The bill would create a separate account accessible for all student organizations.

The amount of money in the account would never go higher than $50,000, with the purpose of funding campus events as long as they are open and free to all students.

The bill is set to be sent to the Senate next Wednesday.

“If we are going to allow academic organizations to receive funding, this is the best option,” said Tom Danielson, finance director of GSB and senior in civil engineering. “We are also maintaining our service level to the groups we currently serve. We don’t have enough money to fund general operations for these [academic] groups.”

Currently GSB funds are restricted to certain organizations. According to its Web site, some of these restrictions include organizations that receive funding from an academic department or college council, organizations with mission consistent with an academic department and organizations that help students achieve professional degree status.

Under these restrictions, most engineering student organizations do not qualify for GSB funding.

Most of the funding for these organizations comes from the Engineering Student Council or one of the academic departments within the College of Engineering.

However, the money from both of these sources proves inefficient for engineering student organizations.

“With the economy being down we’re seeing less dollars so we’re able to give out less dollars. Of course though clubs are trying to grow. They are getting more members. They have different ideas in mind so the demand for money is increasing,” said Steven Harris, vice president of administration of the Engineering Student Council and a junior in industrial engineering. “[Organizations] are asking for five times as much as we are able to give.”

The entire budget for the Engineering Student Council to distribute to student organizations is $20,000.

This money is allocated to as many as 70 student-run clubs and organizations.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics requested $21,000 from the council this year.

These numbers pale in contrast to the $1.7 million budget for GSB, which serves the entire university. Of that $1.7 million, $1.3 million is allocated to student organizations, according to GSB’s Web site.