Throughout the past few days there have been a lot of questions and concerns related to GSB’s Meet the Future of Iowa event and corresponding basketball tickets to the Iowa/Iowa State basketball game.

To clarify, the Government of the Student Body does have a hold on part of section five for the basketball game for the event Meet the Future of Iowa. This is an event coordinated by ISU Ambassadors (the lobbying branch of GSB).

To provide context, Meet the Future of Iowa is an event that started two years ago. At that time tuition had gone up more than 60 percent in four years and we were facing extreme cuts in state appropriations. The student governments at Northern Iowa, Iowa and Iowa State developed a very in-depth lobbying effort to remind legislators of the importance of funding higher education and push for the approval of the “Partnership for Transformation and Excellence.” As a result of the work of the students, Board of Regents, higher education supporters and Legislators, we have had tuition increases of 4 percent last year and as approved Wednesday- for this year. We have been quite successful in our efforts, but that doesn’t mean we can stop pushing for the funding of higher education.

The event itself is a legislative reception where students, parents, alumni, legislators and candidates meet to talk about higher education.

We host a program and reception followed by the game. It is the only time during a given year or legislative session that we can get most legislators to listen to issues related to higher education for more than 15 minutes. One of the best incentives to get legislators to attend the event has been to offer them the opportunity to purchase good seats at the Iowa State/Iowa basketball game. Although at the game they are surrounded by students and not only do they have the opportunity to cheer on the Cyclones, but can also hear about Iowa State and the importance of funding higher education from the students they are sitting by. In general, we request about 80 tickets for the game (it varies on a given year) and about 40 to 50 tickets come from the student section. The rest are in the upper areas.

When the event started two years ago, I was in charge of it as Director of Government Relations. In preparation for the event, I polled and talked to literally hundreds of students to find out if they would be willing to give up a set of 40-50 tickets for this purpose. A large majority gave the go-ahead, even more agreed as long as students were sitting in between the legislators. This will be the third Meet the Future of Iowa and, again, this year I approved the go-ahead to ask the athletic department for a ticket block. I apologize for not doing a better job of communicating to students the plan for the event, the intent behind it and the reasons for taking the seats. It is too late to make any changes for this year, but I will ensure that next year we look to alternative seating, games and locations. For the game Friday night, 95 percent of the students sitting there will be Cyclone fans cheering the team on to a victory. Intermixed will be legislators, some parents, elected officials and members of the Board of Regents.

It appears the situation has changed and that there may not be the level of support for the use of these tickets in this way. I will make sure changes are made and communicated for next year. However, I will say that if we don’t offer great seats to the game (or a similar opportunity) we are giving up one of the best tools we have in bringing legislators and elected officials to campus and ensuring that higher education funding remains a priority, so that we don’t see a double-digit tuition increase anytime in the near future.

Thank you in advance to all of the students and Cyclone supporters who will be cheering on Iowa State to victory on Friday night. GO CYCLONES!

Angela Groh

President

Government of the Student Body