The Government of the Student Body Finance Committee voted Friday to fund two campus positions intended to increase student activism.

After an hour of debate, the committee decided to fund $10,000 toward two assistantships for ActivUS.

The original funding request made by GSB President Sophia Magill and Vice President William Rock asked for more than $36,000 to fund an activism coordinator for the group. That request was denied.

Instead, people in the assistantships would serve as coordinators for student groups’ fund raising and recruitment campaigns, as well as leaders of ActivUS, if it is created.

Rock said because he and Magill ran on a platform that included increasing activism, they saw it as a “moral obligation” to create the position.

He said making the position paid for by student fees would make it accountable to the students. Like all other student organizations that receive campus funding, GSB is supported through student fees.

Andrea Smook, GSB off-campus senator and finance committee member, said she had concerns about trusting GSB to hire someone for the position after the senate voted not to fund a position for the Public Interest Research Group last semester.

Leonard Perry, associate dean of students and director of Multicultural Student Affairs, said creating an activism coordinator position wasn’t the right way to go about creating an activism culture on campus.

Perry, who also opposed PIRG funding, serves as adviser to the finance committee.

“Activism needs to come from all across campus, not just one or two places,” he said.

The finance committee also cut $20,000 from the ISU Financial Counseling Clinic’s $45,000 request to fund a full-time professional counselor.

The counseling clinic receives $25,000 to fund a graduate assistant, but asked for the increase because Doug Borkowski, the clinic’s assistant, will be getting his master’s degree in the fall and wishes to stay on as a professional financial counselor.

Jason Carroll, vice chairman of the finance committee, questioned the need to have a second professional counselor for the clinic rather than continuing to fund a graduate student in the position. Mark Oleson, director of the counseling clinic, said the clinic surveyed students using its services, and students preferred meeting with a professional counselor over meeting with a graduate student.

Carroll said the financial aid department should be able to help students who need financial counseling from a professional.

Oleson, who worked with the financial aid department for six years, disagreed and said if someone is suggesting going to financial aid for counseling, “There’s some ignorance going on.” He said the department does not give students multiple options on ways to consolidate their federal loans like the ISU Financial Counseling Clinic does.

“We work with students daily, who, if it was legal, would bomb Beardshear Hall,” Oleson said of the advice students receive from the financial aid department.