The last meeting of the 2003-04 Government of Student Body Senate promised drama, and the assembled cast didn’t disappoint.

Tears were held back and tempers reached their boiling points as many Public Interest Research Group members and senators were shocked and disappointed to hear a failed vote on their funding bill.

The Public Interest Research Group, for which the senate had instructed the Finance Committee to fund a full-time organizer, was zero-funded by a 15-16-2 vote against the senate’s own instructions.

With a bewildered look on her face, Chelsea Lepley, the group’s campus organizer said, “What just happened?”

“It only made sense it would go through since the senate compelled finance to give them the bill to pass,” Lepley said, as she choked back tears.

With nearly $100,000 worth of funding bills hanging in the balance, Wednesday’s meeting saw strange, if temporary, alliances among senators who, in the past, had contended against one another.

An audience that included 13 members of the solar-car racing club Team PrISUm; several members of disputed sports clubs; Mark Oleson, director of the Financial Counseling Clinic; and Lepley packed the Campanile Room of the Memorial Union for what was to be a last-ditch effort at obtaining funding.

For most of the groups, the meeting held positive, if mixed, results.

Team PrISUm, which had been recommended by the finance committee for zero-funding during the Regular Allocations process, lost its bid for a new $15,000 solar array after the item was struck from the bill. But the group didn’t walk away empty-handed; the senate voted 22-12 to allocate $13,000 from Special Projects to purchase 460 new lithium polymer batteries for the club.

Not quite as fortunate were three of the five clubs attached to the Sports Club Special Project bill, which asked for nearly $10,000 in capital items. The bill was ripped apart by the senate, with amendments passed to strike the Water Polo Club’s lane lines, the Baseball Club’s batting cage, the Badminton Club’s nets, and the Fencing Club’s scorebox from the bill.

The remaining items — a shot clock for the Water Polo Club and a long list of equipment requested by the Mountaineering and Climbing Club, passed, bringing the bill’s total cost to the GSB Special Projects fund down to $6,560.

The senate also voted 19-16-1 to allocate $12,691 to the ISU Weightlifting Club, which said the money was required for, among other things, the 25-year-old flooring in their weight room. The bill also allowed for the purchase of new mirrors and fans for the facility.

The senate also approved a $30,000 bill for the Financial Counseling Clinic by an overwhelming majority, meaning the clinic’s request for a full-time counselor will be fulfilled next year.