One vote separated Iowa State from a PIRG chapter.

The day after the Government of the Student Body failed by one vote to pass a bill that would have provided the Iowa Student Public Interest Research Group with funding for a campus organizer, Chelsea Lepley, president of ISPIRG, said she is unsure how the group will proceed from this point, even though it has finally achieved GSB student-funded office status.

“We’re not going to do any more active lobbying on this issue,” she said. “I got the feeling that a lot of senators want to see PIRG happen, but time is of the essence, and, right now, it’s really up to them.”

The senate’s decision to zero-fund ISPIRG came on the heels of its designation as a student-funded office of GSB, which now gives them priority in the allocation process and access to salaries and criteria exceptions. But without a campus organizer, ISPIRG cannot continue to run PIRG campaigns or use any affiliation with the group.

Seth Landau, the campus organizer for ISPIRG’s New Voters Project, is essentially no longer working with the group because the project is finished and he is not receiving a salary. Lepley herself will be leaving Ames to student teach next semester, leaving treasurer Mara Spooner to take over her seat as president.

“I’m trying to keep my feelings out of it as much as possible,” Lepley said. “I care about what happens, but this isn’t about feelings; this is about results and what students can do.”

GSB Graduate College senator Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen, who voted to fund ISPIRG, said she predicted the senate wouldn’t fund the group, but said she was pleasantly surprised at the amount of support it received. The pro- and anti-funding arguments were equally sound, she said, which is why she has no hard feelings.

“The pro-PIRG arguments were more results-oriented, using a more utilitarian basis for judgment. They said, ‘Look at what PIRG has done; they deserve this,'” Beatty-Hansen said. “The anti-PIRG arguments were process-oriented. It’s still logically sound, but they value going by the rules. Neither group is trying to betray the student interest.”

Another ISPIRG funding supporter, Speaker of the Senate Henry Alliger, said he is disappointed in the few senators who voted no because they said they didn’t have enough information or still had questions about the bill.

“PIRG has been talking to senators for three weeks about this,” he said.

College of Business Senator David Stout, who voted against funding for ISPIRG, said he only did so because he felt that the campus organizer’s salary shouldn’t come out of the capital projects account, which is meant to buy capital items for groups.

“Even though senate may not have taken funding from the account seriously before, it doesn’t mean we should continue to use that account for a slush fund,” he said.

He said he wants to see the group get full funding during regular allocations in the spring.

“I was definitely torn about my ‘no’ vote,” he said. “I was on the fence for almost three weeks, but they’ve shown they have staying power, so that’s why I voted yes for the student-funded office.”

Any senator who voted no on the bill can move to reconsider funding at the last senate meeting of the semester on Dec. 1. Alliger said he believes that may not happen, however.