A student-driven activism group will continue trying to be recognized as a student-funded office.

After failing to secure itself as a Government of the Student Body-funded office Wednesday, Iowa State’s Public Interest Research Group supporters said they still hope GSB officials will support its creation at Iowa State.

Drew Miller, GSB off-campus senator and supporter of the funding bill, said he plans to file a motion at GSB’s next meeting to reconsider the bill.

Nick Rugen, campus organizer for the public interest research group, said the bill’s defeat was unfortunate.

“But I think the key issue is that, this isn’t about personal opinions, or whether you like the organization,” he said. “It’s about helping students. We didn’t win, but I’m confident we’ll find the majority we need to pass the bill.”

GSB officials said it’s unusual to see a defeated bill or resolution come before the senate again.

“[The motion to reconsider] is little used, and there’s a good reason for that,” said Tony Luken, GSB speaker of the senate. “If something’s been decided, it’s been decided.”

If the bill is successfully reintroduced to the senate, it will only have one more chance to be accepted.

Critics of the bill claimed the group was too new to campus to deserve the position of a student-funded office. The group has only existed as an official student organization for less than a month.

Student-funded offices are able to hire and maintain a professional staff, which supporters said is integral to the group’s efficiency.

“A number of senators suggested last night that we go through the regular finance process, but based on the opinion stated by the finance director last night, I don’t think they would look favorably on it,” Rugen said.

He said he believes GSB Finance Director David Boike did not want the group to become a student-funded office.

Boike called Rugen’s concerns “ludicrous,” and said all procedures by the Finance Committee were completely free of personal prejudice.

“I think it’s very unlikely that we’d be able to fund them to the tune of $66,000, because we don’t have the resources,” Boike said. “But the finance department wouldn’t be biased.”

His objections, he said, were not to the group’s existence, but rather to its hasty insistence at becoming a student-funded office. Even if the motion to reconsider is undertaken, he said he doubted it would change the senate’s decision.

“It still needs two-thirds to pass,” he said.

“And I don’t think it will, because enough senators know it’s a bad idea.”