Funding for several student organizations is at stake, as the Government of the Student Body meets Wednesday night to determine funding for these groups.

GSB will determine how to spend about $1.2 million worth of student fees.

The regular allocations bill works a little differently from other bills brought up in the senate. Finance Director Jason Carroll, graduate student in civil, construction, and environmental engineering, said the finance committee’s recommendations for all the groups is in one bill. After the bill is read, any senator has the opportunity to pull out a group from the bill by simply saying the group’s name. The groups that are pulled from the original bill will be placed in their own bill, he said.

“They can pull out one of them, they can pull out none of them, and anywhere in between,” Carroll said.

After the desired groups are separated, the senate will vote on the original bill with the remaining groups, Carroll said. After a break, each pulled group will be discussed individually, he said. After discussion ends, Carroll said the senate has three options: approve the original amount, vote the bill down – which would give the group no funding – or send it back to the finance committee with instructions to do something with the bill. However, the senate cannot make any changes to budgets.

After the bill is sent to the finance committee, depending on the instructions, the finance committee has to decide what to do with the bill, Carroll said. The bill then goes back to senate to be approved. The bill must be passed before the new senate takes office or the bill will die.

In the GSB office, senators have been encouraged to write any group he or she plans to pull out on a wipe board. Carroll has written a number of groups on the board, although he cannot actually pull out any groups himself. He has put some groups on the board because they have contacted him. He has also put GSB on the board, which is typical.

“I think that also the senate should look at the GSB budget pretty in-depth, too,” he said.

Carroll said the reason the GSB budget should be under greater scrutiny is because GSB is the group voting on the budget.

Jonathan Richardson, GSB speaker and senior in chemical engineering, is planning to pull the International Student Council’s budget at Wednesday’s meeting. The finance committee’s current recommendation for the group is $6,278.66. However, Richardson said he will be looking to get additional funding of $500 to $600.

“There are several line items they wanted to address,” he said.

Richardson said the current recommendation does not fund International Week or transportation for new international students.

He said it is important to help fund International Week because it’s an event that showcases diversity, one of GSB’s goals.

Although there was more than $300,000 worth of cuts this year, Richardson said additional funding would be possible. He said that at the regular allocations senate meeting some groups are cut, so additional money becomes available.

“It’s normally not a big issue,” he said.

Rachna Kacholia, International Student Council president and senior in accounting, said she was not happy about how much funding for her group was cut during the budget hearings and had talked to Richardson about possibly getting more funding.

Kacholia said her two biggest concerns are the transportation for new international students and funding for International Week.

The transportation covers a shuttle from the Des Moines International Airport and transportation around Ames to go to Wal-Mart, 3015 Grand Ave., as well as helping those students move into their permanent housing when it is allowed without extra cost, she said. Since international students arrive one week before classes start, this funding is important.

Kacholia said if she had to pick between the two, she would want the money for new students. If neither of these items are funded, the group will have to charge for some of its events at International Week and charge the new students for transportation.