Chelsey Lepley’s quest to find money for a full-time official staff person to assist in Public Interest Research Group endeavors appeared to end Wednesday evening.

After the Government of the Student Body finance committee submitted an altered budget that would give the group $7,952.85 in operating fees, the senate voted 21-11-1 to return the bill with instructions to fund a full-time staff member.

The committee evaluated the group because the senate instructed to fund the ISU chapter of PIRG despite reservations at last week’s regular allocations meeting.

Lepley, president of the fledgling group, said she was happy with the action, but indicated PIRG’s future wasn’t secure yet.

“We still need to make sure we talk to the finance committee, make sure they understand why it’s important to fund our group, but I’m very satisfied with the senate’s vote,” she said.

The senate’s instructions to the finance committee were to find $27,000 in GSB money to fund a full-time organizer for the group, something PIRG supporters said was a paramount requirement.

However, David Boike, GSB finance director, said the senate’s decision may not have been wise.

“The money should most appropriately come from the Senate Discretionary Fund, so they’ll have nearly nothing to work with next year,” he said. “I think it’s inappropriate that the senate screwed over next year’s senate to fund what’s obviously a pet project.”

Boike said some of the group’s supporters in the senate may have been ill-advised in pushing for a full-time staff member.

“I have heard some senators say that their only priority is to fund PIRG as much as they can, and that they don’t care about anything else, be it other student groups or the next senate. And I find that to be irresponsible and horrific,” Boike said.

The Senate Discretionary Fund is an account of roughly $7,000 to $10,000 available per meeting to fund requests made by student organizations.

Drew Miller, off-campus senator and one of the group’s most fervent supporters, said the senate’s decision was the correct one.

“We spent a lot of time talking to senators and explaining to them how beneficial PIRG would be,” he said. “I’m happy 21 people agreed.”

In new business, a resolution introduced by Miller, Matt Denner and Cara Harris, off-campus senators, outlined a last-ditch effort in securing a student tailgating area at Jack Trice Stadium if talks between student leaders and school officials bear no results.

The resolution states since there have been no significant developments in the tailgating situation, and a threat by GSB to reduce its allocation of student fees to the athletic department has received a lot of attention, GSB will cut $5 from the athletics fee and transfer the money to the student activities fee. This, the legislation said, will stop the athletic department from continuing to ignore students.

The resolution also argues the change, if passed next week, wouldn’t automatically hurt the athletic department, but instead would give next year’s senate the option of taking action on the issue if the athletic department doesn’t respond.

However, as talks continue with Athletics Director Bruce Van De Velde and Pete Englin, dean of students, to find a spot for students in the stadium parking lots, Miller said the resolution would provide students with more leverage.

“If there’s significant progress before next Wednesday, I will withdraw the resolution,” Miller said. “This year, our options for dealing with this issue were very limited, because anything we decided as far as funding wouldn’t take effect until next year. With this resolution, if something happens, we’ll be able to respond to it immediately.”

However, Nick Leitheiser, Frederiksen Court senator and member of the Student Gameday Experience Committee tasked with solving the problem, said the resolution may be too early.

“Basically, this resolution is up because a couple of members of the senate decided they didn’t know what was going on and wanted to do something about it,” he said. “None of them talked to me on the issue. I think the resolution is a little premature.”