The Government of the Student Body is hoping to eliminate confusion by proposing new bylaws for groups that can be considered pre-professional.

The revised bylaws are intended to clarify the term “pre-professional,” which has caused tension between GSB senators and campus groups in the past.

Ambiguity over the term has allowed senators to interpret the bylaws to justify both funding and not funding groups based on senators’ judgments on whether the group should be labeled as pre-professional, said Speaker of the Senate Henry Alliger.

This has caused problems with inconsistency in the government’s allocations process from year to year, he said — groups who have been funded by GSB have been denied funding on a pre-professional basis the following year by a different GSB senate.

This year’s example was the ISU Entrepreneur Club, which was funded by last year’s senate. The group saw major cuts in its funding this year after debate about whether the group is pre-professional — something that was not questioned by last year’s senate, said Steve Saltzman, ISU Entrepreneur Club president.

“It’s hard for a group to follow ‘the spirit of the bylaws’ if the bylaws themselves aren’t defined fully,” Saltzman said.

Jacob Larson, off-campus government senator, said senators have become more willing to deny funding to groups argued to be pre-professional because GSB has experienced shortfalls in its budget the past three years.

“The guidelines for the definition of pre-professional have become stricter because there is less and less money, so we have to scrutinize groups more than in the past,” said Larson, co-author of the bill to revise the pre-professional bylaws.

GSB is in the midst of ending its regular allocations process. So far, five organizations have been zero-funded.

“I would consider any group that is aligned with a particular academic curriculum to be considered as pre-professional,” Larson said.

According to Larson’s co-authored proposal, the bylaws would be changed to define pre-professional groups as those whose major focus is “on developing the skills, access and experience necessary to attain a career, internship, scholarship and/or professional degree status.”

Larson’s proposal would revise the bylaws to have groups meet two of the following:

“The group’s adviser, mission or intent of their activities are correlated with a particular academic department and/or occupational field.”

Right now, the criteria is as follows: “The group receives academic credit for membership, the group votes as a member of one or more of the college councils, receives funds from one or more college councils, receives funds from an academic department, is comprised mainly of students who are of a particular academic department, helps to assist students attain professional degree status, internships or scholarships, and has an affiliation with a professional organization.”

Larson said the fundamental principle in the issue is where student funding should go while also attempting to not privilege certain groups over others.

“It is unfortunate that helping people in their career is seen as such a negative thing,” Saltzman said.

“So you’re punished for doing something positive.”