The Government of Student Body voted to allocate $10,600 to Veishea at its meeting Wednesday night.

Veishea general co-chairpersons Elyse Harper, senior in psychology, and Mark Pierce, junior in agricultural business, gave a brief presentation in conjunction with a senate bill to provide funding to televise the Veishea parade. The Senate debated the bill for more than 30 minutes. 

Off-campus senator Jacob Johnston, senior in management, expressed a variety of concerns about the bill. Johnston said he didn’t understand why the co-chairs didn’t first approach ISUtv to broadcast the event before requesting that GSB allocate $6,000 to them. He said he didn’t feel it was a wise way to spend student funds and repeatedly expressed his concerns. 

Tom Danielson, finance director and senior in civil engineering, mentioned that GSB would be allocating a half cent per student, and he felt it was a reponsible way to spend the money, as it promotes ISU student organizations.

After more than 30 minutes of debate, the bill passed with 19-to-six vote, allocating $6,000 to Veishea in order to broadcast the Veishea parade on KDSM Fox 17.

The senate bill Keeping Cyclone Idol Free passed unanymously, allowing Cyclone Idol to take place in C.Y. Stephens Auditorium free of charge. The bill allocates $4,600 to Veishea. Last year marked the first year Cyclone Idol took place in Stephens Auditorium, and approximately 1,800 people attended the event. Cycole Idol had previously taken place in the Great Hall, where students were turned away from the event due to the facility’s capacity of 1,000.

Daniel Fischer, GSB president and senior in agricultural business, addressed the Senate at Wednesday night’s meeting. Fischer said he and Director of ISU Ambassadors Alyssa Staley, senior in political science, met with Peter Cannon of Campus Book Store to discuss the strategies and feasibility of pushing the tax exemption, as well as other money saving alternatives for students. Fischer will meet with Faculty Senate President Clark Ford to discuss these ideas later this week.

Fischer said he will meet with Tahira Hira, executive assistant to the president and member of the Iowa Student Loan Board, which will oversee the Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corportation, on Thursday to discuss ideas to get feedback from students regarding loans.

Fischer and Chandra Peterson, Campustown senator and junior in political science, and Lauren Suerth, Campustown senator and senior in community and regional planning, will meet Friday to discuss the possibility of getting involved with the efforts of the student-run “Live Green” campaign.

Jennifer Munoz, director of public relations and senior in finance, addressed the senate at Wednesday’s meeting. Munoz presented the tentative 2009 GSB student body survey that will be released early next week.

“It has been a few years since we conducted a GSB student survey and we want to know what current students want out of GSB,” Munoz said.  She said the survey will be sent via surveymonkey.com and in order to get as much student response as possible, there will be the incentive of an ISU Bookstore gift certificate to anyone who completes the survey. She said results of the survey will help GSB to direct its projects and will be a tool for future GSB leaders to better serve their constituents.

Angel Yu, junior in accounting and finance, was appointed the new director of diversity at Wednesday’s meeting. Yu said one of her goals is to publicize multicultural events on campus to get as many students in attendance as possible. However, her primary goal is “to strengthen communication between International Student Council and GSB.” 

After being appointed to the senate last Wednesday, Cedric Jones, senior in journalism and mass communication, has since resigned from his off-campus senate seat.

GSB general election

GSB will be holding candidate seminars for students interested in running for office in the GSB general election, which will be held March 2 and 3. The seminars are informational sessions where the election commissioner will explain the campaign rules and the election timeline. All candidates who wish to run must attend before campaigning. Candidates who cannot attend any of seminars should contact the election commissioner. 

Seminars will be held at 4 p.m. each day in the following rooms:

Monday – MU Room 3534

Tuesday – MU Room 3534

Wednesday – MU Room 3540

Thursday – MU Room 3505