The Government of the Student Body has sponsored a number of events during the first weeks of classes, but the organization’s leaders said work still needs to be done to fully represent the student body.

GSB Vice President William Rock said progress has been made with events that have increased GSB’s outreach to students — an important goal of Rock and GSB President Sophia Magill’s campaign last spring.

Successes included a partially GSB-sponsored concert at Reiman Gardens, which drew 1,000 students, and “Cool Down with GSB,” where students had the opportunity to meet with GSB members, Rock said.

However, Rock said work remains on such issues as getting new GSB members comfortable with the governmental process.

“We have a lot of new people in GSB, so it’s taken a while to get them on their feet and going,” Rock said. “They have a lot of potential, it’s just getting the motor running.”

Rock said GSB is also looking to fill its open seats. Among the groups looking to fill out their ranks are the ISU Ambassadors and the ISU Diversity Evaluation and Education Program, or DEEP, which are both relatively new programs that have been top initiatives for Rock and Magill.

ISU DEEP is a group created by GSB Director of Student Diversity Sarah Walter to alert the student community on matters of diversity education. Rock said its aim is to send experts to educate students on issues of diversity and to do so sufficiently enough that students can then go on and teach others. It will also seek to increase the presence of international and minority students in all types of groups on campus, he said. Rock said he has been promoting ISU DEEP to students as Walter plans for its future.

ISU Ambassadors, a group that selects students to communicate with their hometown media and legislatures on ISU issues, has also been promoted by GSB executives, he said.

Rock said it isn’t surprising there are open seats in these two groups because this is ISU Ambassadors’ second and ISU DEEP’s first year of existence.

In addition to resolving the seating situation, Speaker of the Senate Henry Alliger said the senate has spent time discussing which goals it will be emphasizing in the coming months. A GSB senate retreat held Sept. 1 highlighted possible campus projects and stressed the need to help student organizations better understand the funding processes of GSB.

A plan to address the inexperience of some GSB members was also discussed.

“[We talked about] developing a better transition and training program for members of the GSB senate,” Alliger said.

At Wednesday night’s GSB senate meeting, the creation of a new committee was announced that would address the creation of a plan that would work on the training and transition of GSB members for their positions.

GSB is not doing as much communication with the Iowa Legislature at this point of the year, Rock said.