A veto can be an intimidating tool for a president. To get to the president, the bill must be approved by a majority of an elected legislative body, and, by rejecting it, that president is telling the majority it is wrong.

Apparently, Government of the Student Body President Sophia Magill has no problem telling GSB senators they are wrong. She informed 27 of 34 voting senators they were wrong when she shot down a bill to make Iowa Student Public Interest Research Group a student-funded office.

But don’t worry, folks, she did it for us — the student body, that is. After all, she knows better what 27,000 students want than the elected senators representing smaller portions of the whole body — or so she believes.

Is this arrogance, ignorance or both?

Unfortunately, the senate didn’t put up enough of a fight and failed to overturn her veto by one vote. How close Iowa State was to having a group look out for students’ interests. But close only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades.

The dud, though, is having an elected “leader” who claims to be working for students but balks at an organization she decreed had merit and — once upon a time — supported.

“I think they are a valuable organization,” she told the Daily. But she claims the group doesn’t have the capacity to serve as a student-funded office because people don’t know what the group is and how it benefits them. Isn’t that what marketing is for?

The solution to people not knowing or understanding the benefits of a group is to tell them the benefits — you know, communicate with the constituents, which was a campaign promise made by Magill months ago when she was still a senator with no veto power.

Since the student leaders don’t want to tell students why ISPIRG is a necessary addition to our campus, we will: The group takes on endeavors like the New Voters Project, which helped increase voter turnout in at least one student-heavy precinct by almost 400 percent, and can provide a professional organizer to tackle oft-ignored issues like renter’s rights.

By not funding the group at its Nov. 17 meeting, GSB guaranteed ISPIRG would not be a financial drain, or really accomplish much, this year. But the approval of ISPIRG as a student-funded office was symbolic, and it paved the road for a better funding relationship with GSB to be able to provide a salary for employees and the campus organizer in the coming years.

The Daily editorial board certainly doesn’t have the power to veto Magill’s decision, but we hope we’ve made our opinion of her actions abundantly clear: You were wrong.