GSB ends Regular Allocation process
March 25, 2009
The Government of the Student Body wrapped up its Regular Allocation process Wednesday night, allocating $1.3 million to student organizations for the upcoming fiscal year.
The Senate approved the Regular Allocations bill after pulling 15 student organizations for debate.
Four student publications were pulled for debate: Uhuru, Trend, Ethos and Writer’s Bloc.
Senators expressed concern with allocating any additional funds to Uhuru, Ethos or Writer’s Bloc. Due to the fact that each of the three publications had to give money back to GSB each year, the senators weren’t comfortable giving them additional funds if they weren’t currently being used properly. The senate also debated whether or not the current circulation for the publications might be too high. Multiple senators said they see copies of Uhuru and Ethos around campus months after publication. The representative for Uhuru, president Robert Brako, senior in mathematics, said the group purposely prints extra copies so students can find them anywhere on campus.
One of Trend’s representatives, co-president, Brittany Wyeno, senior in advertising, said that she didn’t find it fair that other publications are funded to have a higher circulation, yet issues sit in boxes for months, but issues of Trend seem to go fast while Trend isn’t receiving extra funds.
Graduate senator Heath Schechinger, graduate in educational leadership and policy studies, said he was confused as to why the senate was being so conservative with their allocations. He said that he understands cuts need to be made, but when groups such as Trend are successful, GSB shouldn’t hinder their expansion.
The senate voted to recommit Trend to the finance committee with instructions to fund Trend’s publication fee at $9,000, the other publications were not recommitted.
Dance Marathon’s finance director Nick Anderson, junior in finance, addressed the senate at Wednesday’s meeting. The finance committee had previously cut Megaflix and rental items from Dance Marathon’s budget. Anderson said Megaflix is one thing students ask to bring back each year. He said Megaflix runs the entire 15-hour duration of Dance Marathon and entertains children and students.
Engineering senator Dan Finnegan, senior in aerospace engineering, said Dance Marathon’s mission is a philanthropic one, not one of entertainment. He said entertainment costs were cut from every other group that wasn’t solely focused on entertainment.
“Being arbitrary is what gives GSB a bad reputation sometimes… people think we just do whatever the hell we want,” Finnegan said.
In the end, no changes were made to the proposed budget.
The Veishea co-chairpersons Elyse Harper, senior in psychology, and Mark Pierce, junior in agricultural business, said Veishea’s budget has already taken multiple cuts, and expressed the need for the extra funding for two-way radios that was cut from the finance committee.
Off-campus senator Jacob Johnston, senior in management, questioned the usefulness of the radios and said he would have a difficult time voting in favor of funding the two-way radios at $6,000. He asked if they would be willing to purchase radios from Wal-Mart instead.
Agriculture senator Brandon Fischer, senior in agricultural studies, said he was on the Veishea committee that rented the radios last year and said if they used radios from Wal-Mart, they would have broken in the rain.
Harper noted that the two-way radios are about $1,000 each, so it would not be wise to purchase them.
After a quick debate, the Senate voted to recommit Veishea to the finance committee with instructions to fund the radios at 100 percent.
After more than six hours of debating about funding student organizations, GSB debated its own budget.
Prior to the debate, GSB cut about $14,000 from its budget. The finance committee lowered the cost of inauguration, cut salaries and many extras .
“If we’re cutting luxuries for clubs, we should cut ours, too,” said off-campus senator Nathan Rockman, senior in political science.
The senate also debated the speaker and finance director’s parking passes.
“You can walk just like the rest of us,” said SUV senator Melissa Jakubauskas, graduate in apparel, educational studies, and hospitality management.
Campustown senator Lauren Suerth, senior in community and regional planning, said GSB strives to promote a “greener” community, but rewarding some of its members with parking permits would not be very “green.”
After it was suggested these positions utilize CyRide, speaker of the senate Jon Turk, junior in political science, said that the finance director and speaker are often in the GSB office hours when CyRide is no longer running. Turk said he would be willing to get rid of the speaker’s permit, although it has been useful to him, but did not support eliminating the finance director’s.
Finance director, Tom Danielson, senior in civil engineering, said he works at least 40 hours a week and up to 80 hours other weeks. He said because he has to be flexible about meeting with students and faculty, he needs to have access to a vehicle.
The senate voted to send the budget back to finance committee with instructions to eliminate the line for inauguration.
How it works
During the meeting, GSB votes on regular allocation; all the proposed budgets from the student groups are included in one bill. However, a group can be pulled out of the bill, at the request of the group or at a senator’s discretion, at which point the group’s budget becomes its own bill and is debated individually. The Senate, however, cannot actually make changes to the budget. If the senate determines the budget should be changed, it must send it back to finance committee with instructions on what to change.
Groups pulled from the bill for debate
Dance Marathon
Freshman Council
(recommitted to finance committee)
Women’s Hockey
(recommitted to finance committee)
Uhuru Magazine
Veishea, Inc.
(recommitted to finance committee)
Committee on Lectures
Atheist and Agnostic Society
(recommitted to finance committee)
Ethos Magazine
Synchronized Skating
(recommitted to finance committee)
Trend Magazine
(recommitted to finance committee)
Association of Malaysian Students at ISU
(recommitted to finance committee)
Ethos Magazine
Brazilian Portuguese Association
(recommitted to finance committee)
Writer’s Bloc
Government of the Student Body
(recommitted to finance committee)