It seems to me the Government of the Student Body is splitting hairs when it came to denying funding to the National Pan-Hellenic Council. The statement listed in the Daily was that it was because this organization was not open to all students.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council is the governing body of the historically black greek fraternities and sororities at Iowa State and the Collegiate Panhellenic Council is the governing body of the sororities at Iowa State. Which organization will no longer receive funding?

I looked at the list of ISU organizations and noticed that many of them are oriented to support a particular subset of students.

Yes, fraternities and sororities are open only to those students who choose to join and are accepted by that group according to their policies and restrictions (maximum number of active members, GPA, acceptance by current members, etc.).

But is that any different that honorary societies are only open to students (not spouses) who ask to join and need to meet eligibility criteria?

I always thought that Mortar Board, Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa were a lot more exclusive than fraternities and sororities (or their panhellenic umbrella groups) — do they get money?

How about those organizations for graduate or undergraduate students only?

Should they be allowed funding?

Is a sports club for members of only one sex denied funds? Don’t even get me started about groups that promote a specific religion, political belief, race or ethnic origin, or are to “educate” about something that some students/ faculty/staff may find offensive (Cuffs, anyone?).

Why should they get funding from the GSB?

I could not find any place on the GSB Web page stating what organizations it does support and the amount that each organization receives.

Maybe if they were more open about this, students could let senators/representatives know how they really feel about the funding distribution, plus point out inconsistencies in funding levels and work to ensure that the organizations they are interested in receive their fair share/support.

GSB needs to review their reasons for accepting/denying funds to organizations.

Maybe the solution is to follow the the practices that many local United Way organizations adopted and give each approved group a unique number and let the people who contribute funds each semester decide what their student activity funds supports instead of a select group of people at GSB.

Elizabeth Boardman

Graduate Student

Information Assurance