With all three regular allocation hearings finished, Government of Student Body finance committee members are still facing a budget shortfall of $42,000, which will necessitate a “budget balancing” session Monday.

Budget balancing, a last-ditch effort to bring the GSB allocation budget into equilibrium before it is submitted to the Senate, may require further cuts into student organizations’ funds. This is a step that could mean an across-the-board cut, said David Boike, GSB Finance Director.

“We will do whatever has to be done to balance the budget,” Boike said. “We stay there until we have a balanced budget, whether through cutting groups, finding money through other sources or whatever it takes.”

He said the finance committee was considering taking some of the money from GSB Special Projects account, which contains more than $200,000 in funds organizations failed to use last year, which reverted back to GSB.

In addition to taking money from this account, the committee also recommend zero-funding seven groups to balance the budget. That list may expand, as Saturday’s regular allocation hearings left three more groups with finance committee recommendations for zero-funding.

3-minute Dating, a group that raises funds for charitable organizations, was zero-funded because GSB already does its charitable work through Analysis of Social Services Evaluation Team, Boike said.

Students 2 Students, a health-based organization, was recommended for zero-funding because it receives money from the Theilen Student Health Center. Boike said the club represented a duplication of services.

Computer Assisted Language Learning Club was zero-funded as a pre-professional group, a classification which GSB does not support with student funds, according to its bylaws.

Meghan Reicks, treasurer of Students 2 Students, said although the loss of GSB funding will hurt her group’s efforts, she believes the seven-member group will be able to continue educating students on alcohol abuse, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS.

“I think we’ll still be OK,” said Reicks, junior in zoology. “This is the first year we’ve officially been a club.”

Students 2 Students officially existed previously as an offshoot of the larger Student Health Advisory Council group, which, she said, the group would still be able to turn to for finances.

“When we were under SHAC, we did fine,” Reicks said. “But it would have been good to have the extra money for conferences and that sort of thing.”

One group that has seen cuts to its GSB funding has been the Committee on Lectures, which is an arm of GSB itself. The group requested $117,349 to fund the appearance of future speakers, but came away from regular allocation hearings with a proposed budget of $110,049.

The group’s president, Travis Shelton, said the loss of GSB funds would likely result in greater frugality among the committee when deciding who to bring to Iowa State.

“I think it means that a lot of people are going to be more careful about who we give money to,” said Shelton, senior in finance. “We’ll have to negotiate more, and get every break we can with who we bring in.”

The finance committee will present its recommendations March 24 to the GSB senate, which will approve or deny the cuts.