The Government of the Student Body did not have the margin necessary to override the recently vetoed Constituency Council Clarification bill Wednesday night.

GSB President Daniel Fischer, senior in agricultural business, vetoed the bill after the senate passed it with nearly unanimous consent.

The bill would have set certain standards for the constituency councils to meet in order to remain a constituency council. Councils are in charge of representing their respective area and nominating senators for vacant seats.

Off-campus senator Jacob Johnston, senior in management, said unless GSB was planning to provide funding for these constituency councils to meet these new standards, he saw it as a punishment.

“Where is the punishment?” Finance Director Tom Danielson, senior in civil engineering, asked. “I think it’s perfectly appropriate to expect the groups to meet these standards.”

Danielson said the way it sits currently, GSB is allowing these councils be represented by senators and asking for nothing in return.

“That’s dangerous for us,” he said.

Liberal Arts and Sciences senator Tyler Albaugh, senior in mathematics, said “[GSB] has too big of an ego to represent the students and I think that’s terrible.”

Albaugh said it is possible that the baseball club is doing a better job of representing students who live off campus “and that’s just sad.”

Engineering senator Erik Hofstad, senior in aerospace engineering, said that there isn’t a single constituency council that is currently receiving funding from GSB, so it wouldn’t make sense to fund the off-campus constituency council.

“If you’re saying we’re not trying to get money to better represent our constituents then that’s a lie,” off-campus senator Nathan Rockman, senior in political science, said.

“It’s not like we’re sitting there twiddling our thumbs thinking, ‘oh, it’s sweet to be a constituency council.’”

Rockman said the off-campus senators have been working hard to gain support from businesses, but the economy has put the businesses in a tough position to donate.

After an intense debate, the entire off-campus senate voted against the override, and they were the only six to do so. By a vote of 17-6-3, the override failed, so the veto stands.

Fischer also addressed the senate at Wednesday’s meeting with his state of the student body speech.

“Student debt has obviously been the number one issue in our term,” he said.

In order to combat student debt, GSB has focused its support on the financial literacy campaign and the one-credit online financial literacy course. The ISU Ambassadors have increased lobbying efforts.

Fischer said that for years GSB has struggled to find ways to get feedback and involvement from Campustown and off-campus students. He said he believes an off-campus housing Web site would benefit many students at ISU for years to come.

“There will be some concern with the price tag at first, but I think it will be a great project,” he said.

Fischer suggested freezing any increase in student fees and using student fee money that hasn’t been spent.

He said he is confident GSB will “properly steward” student’s money.

“Our university will be in an interesting economic situation in the near future,” Fischer said. “Decisions such as cutting student services and even academic programs will likely be made in the near future.”

He said it would be important that the representatives and leaders of GSB have good information and diverse experiences throughout campus involvements.

“There will always be challenges at a university and within a student government,” he said. The senate voted to pass the bill Funding Fun Freeboards for Freeboard Club, allocating $1,134.95 to the to purchase five new freeboards.

The senate also passed the bill Bringing Back Baseball to Iowa State, allocating $2,275 to the baseball club for mower repair, grass seed, all sport turf and quick dry turf.

Interfraternity Council senator Jim Smaga, senior in sociology — liberal arts and sciences, sponsored the bill and is a member of the baseball team. He said many visiting schools comment on the condition of the field when they play Iowa State and the current state of the field is an embarrassment. He also said six games were cancelled last season due to rain issues and the quick-dry turf GSB is providing will help to combat rainy conditions.

Danielson said the baseball club does “a ridiculous amount of fund raising.”

“They are pretty much keeping up the entire facility themselves,” he added.

The senate bill Purchasing Furniture for the Browsing Library failed by a vote of 1-24-1.