The Student Affairs Commission will meet for the first time at 7 p.m. Thursday in the City Council chambers, in hopes of giving students a voice in city government.

Last fall, the Government of the Student Body began researching this possibility, said Emily Jensen, GSB president and senior in political science, who will sit on the council.

The commission was made to ensure that students have a voice in the community. GSB worked alongside the City Council and Ames Mayor Ann Campbell to research how such a group would fit in Ames.

The measure passed last spring. Although the mayor officially appointed the members, Jensen explained that both she and the mayor worked together to fill positions in the commission.

“The mayor and I split up the people,” Jensen said. “She recruited many of the community members, and I recruited many of the students and university representatives.”

The commission came about partly because of a similar organization in Davis, Calif., between University of California-Davis students and the local community, Jensen said. It had been discussed for a few years before it became a reality. After Veishea 2004, discussion began on how to establish a sense of community.

“The focus after that was really building a community and how do we have students, and community members feel like we all belong here together,” she said.

Jensen said it was decided that students needed to have a voice in the community and the community needed to respect this voice.

“The best idea that we found for Ames was this type of commission,” Jensen said.

The formation of this committee is based on the fact that students are trying to be heard, said Craig Buske, ex-officio student council representative and senior in political science, who will also sit on the committee.

“The idea came out of wanting to have students be able to give more input in city decisions that directly affected students,” he said.

This commission will be able to give a fresh perspective on certain problems, Buske said. In the past, sometimes students have felt that they haven’t been heard, and this commission will do much to change that, he said.

“It’s important to give students more of a voice in city government,” Buske said.

The commission was formed because of a GSB recommendation, said Ames City Manager Steve Schainker.

“It was really a recommendation from GSB to the City Council, and the City Council agreed with it as a way to promote better dialogue between the students and the city,” he said.

The positions on this committee are not only limited to members of GSB, Jensen said. She also said that they decided who would sit on the commission through the commission in California that it was modeled from that and from discussions with the mayor, City Council and GSB.

The members who sit on the committee are spelled out in the ordinance and include: the student City Council liaison, the GSB president, the Inter-Residence Hall Association president, a greek community student leader, the International Student Council president, three off-campus students, a member of the Young Professionals of the Chamber of Commerce, a Campustown business owner, a rental property owner in Campustown, three neighborhood association members and the Ames High School student body president. Also, two ex-officio members, which include Schainker and a representative from the ISU administration.

All meetings are open attendance, so students are invited to attend, Jensen said. If anyone is interested in filling an open position on the commission, they should contact her or the mayor.

“We are currently looking for an off-campus student,” she said.

Anything the commission deals with will have to be approved by the City Council, like any other commission or board on the City Council, Schainker said. This will include anything that the council assigns to them.

Schainker said the City Council has to direct the commission to look at certain issues it needs studied. It can deal with an issue related specifically or uniquely to a student issue.

Jensen explained what topics would be discussed at Thursday’s meeting, which include two issues related to Campustown.

“Specifically, I know there are two issues that they wanted to talk about regarding Campustown area,” Jensen said.

“The first one is installing more public restrooms to use in Campustown, and the second is discussing the trash and litter that is seen in Campustown, especially on the weekends.”