The Iowa Student Public Interest Research Group has been left with a tough decision: Should it continue to move forward on its quest for funding or wait until emotions have settled before attempting to go any further?

ISPIRG President Chelsea Lepley said the group has been weighing its options since Government of the Student Body senators failed Wednesday to overturn President Sophia Magill’s veto of a bill that made ISPIRG into a student-funded office.

“It really depends on what seems best for students to come who will be involved in ISPIRG,” Lepley said. “It makes sense to pursue regular allocations since so many senators expressed support for it, but we also run the risk of alienating those who don’t.”

Last month, ISPIRG was zero-funded by the senate. Without funds, ISPIRG cannot hire a campus organizer, which the group needs to be considered an official PIRG chapter.

Lepley said she and other ISPIRG members have been communicating with the national PIRG office on how to continue. The group’s final decision on pursuing funding should be made sometime next week, she said.

Speaker of the Senate Henry Alliger said he was unhappy with the outcome of Wednesday’s vote.

“I was a little disappointed that the senate didn’t stand up for something they had already supported,” he said.

That support diminished Wednesday as four supporters of the original bill to make ISPIRG a student-funded office either voted against or abstained from overriding Magill’s veto.

Off-Campus Government Senator Jennifer Eggleston and College of Agriculture Senator Nathan Katze both voted against the override, and InterFraternity Council Senator Andrew Brown and Off-Campus Government Senator Andrea Smook abstained from the vote.

Smook said she abstained because she is torn between supporting ISPIRG and closely following GSB bylaws and funding rules.

“I voted yes the first time as a good faith gesture to PIRG,” she said. “Then, after President Magill’s veto, more information came up — the executive branch didn’t support PIRG — and it made me think it’s not the time or place for this … since it’s such a controversial issue, then maybe more thought needs to be taking place about it.”

Smook, however, said she disagreed with some of Magill’s concerns.

“I think PIRG is doing the activism that’s needed, and I don’t think her ideas are as efficient,” she said.

“I think it’ll be evident if PIRG has to be dormant until they get funding. I think people will realize that they’re a valuable group.”

ISPIRG is a nonpartisan group that brings students’ interests and concerns with societal problems to legislative bodies.

This semester, ISPIRG sponsored the New Voters Project.