After debating for nearly an hour, the Government of Student Body voted against the senate bill Enabling Un-Housed Constituency Councils, 15-13-1. 

The bill would have given un-housed constituency councils, such as Campustown and off-campus constiuency councils, the chance to receive $200 each year.

Engineering senator Dan Finnegan, senior in aerospace engineering, addressed many concerns about the bill. 

“This is about fundamentally changing the rules of this government,” he said. “It created an unfair playing field around this table.”

GSB Finance Director Tom Danielson, senior in civil engineering, was in favor of the bill. 

“[The off-campus constituencies] have spent money out of their own pockets and they’ve done a great job this year and we are giving them a fighting chance to exist,” he said.

Danielson said he believes each ISU student has had the opportunity to visit Campustown and benefit from all that it offers. Also, he said, as the constiuency doesn’t receive this kind of funding from anywhere else, he didn’t see how it would be unfair to give them $200 per year. 

“We don’t want them to be spending all of their time recruiting members just so they can exist,” he said.

Danielson said if GSB didn’t pass the bill, they would be effectively killing two constituency councils. 

“A vote against this bill is not a vote against Campustown. If we don’t pass this bill, Campustown isn’t going to turn into a third-world country,” Finnegan said.

Off-campus senator Jacob Wilson, sophomore in political science, said as an off-campus senator he can’t even send out a mass e-mail without paying for it out of his pocket and thinks the fair thing to do is give the two constituencies the $200.

“The world isn’t fair and I don’t support this bill,” said off-campus senator Nathan Rockman, senior in political science.

Because the bill didn’t pass, the constituencies will have to write their own bill and present it to the senate in order to receive funding.

The senate bill Funding the Financial Literacy Campaign passed with a 26-2-0 vote at Wednesday’s meeting, allocating $1,890 to the campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to “inform students of resources and send a message that student debt is an issue and we want to help students where we can,” said GSB President Daniel Fischer, senior in agricultural business. Resources available to students through the campaign are available at gsb.iastate.edu/debt.