Some students respect it, others think it’s worthless.

The new Government of the Student Body members will try to combat perceived student apathy and ignorance about GSB’s purpose during the upcoming school year.

In the GSB elections in March, some of the write-in candidates reflected a lack of respect for the GSB, said Mansoor Khadir, GSB election commissioner.

According to the official election results, Shanda Munn, a junior in pre-journalism who stands accused of vehicular homicide, placed fourth in the GSB presidential race. Jason Berryman, who was kicked off the ISU football team recently after a string of infractions, placed eighth.

“People just randomly put names in to vote for,” Khadir said.

Kaiser Kaiserani, junior in accounting, was elected to serve a second term in the GSB Senate.

He said he thinks the new Senate has a lot of potential to improve, especially with the newly formed public relations and university committees in place. One of the responsibilities of these committees will be to improve communication with students.

“We’re also going to be talking to students at Destination Iowa State – trying to reach out to them,” Kaiserani said. “It’s what we’re supposed to do.”

He said he felt that GSB lacks a positive presence on campus, since most students don’t really care about it.

“It’s very saddening to see things like the low voter turnout this year,” Kaiserani said.

Jason Carroll, GSB finance director, said one of the reasons students should care about GSB is that it distributes a large amount of money to different student groups and activities.

“We take in about $1.4 million annually from student fees, and allocate all of it back to the students in one form or another,” Carroll said.

Despite this facet of GSB’s responsibilities, some students remain skeptical of the organization.

A quick search of Facebook reveals student-formed groups such as “GSB Doesn’t Matter” and “Students Against GSB.”

Michael Preckshot, sophomore in history, is a member of Students Against GSB. He said he didn’t vote this year, and neither did anyone he knows.

“Nobody gives a crap about GSB because they don’t really do anything,” Preckshot said. “It’s pretty much worthless.”

He said most students don’t know what GSB does and that he thought most members of GSB get involved only to pad their resumes.

Some students, however, hold more favorable opinions of GSB.

Katelyn Olds, freshman in dietetics, said she thinks lack of communication with students is the GSB’s main problem.

“They’re great people, they just need to be more outgoing,” she said.