The Government of the Student Body may be reducing compensation for its vice president.

A resolution to be introduced at Wednesday’s GSB meeting would cut the vice president’s benefits in half, a measure the bill’s authors said would significantly reduce the amount of money GSB is required to spend every year and free up more money for student organizations.

GSB Vice President Ben Albright said he wished he would have been consulted about the decision.

“My basic concern is that, while the change would not affect me personally, I would have liked to have been consulted, because, if asked my opinion, I would have said that if they’re going to cut the vice president’s compensations, they should also look at the finance director’s,” Albright said.

He said GSB should look into cutting compensation for the finance director because it is listed as the third priority of executive positions to be compensated by fully funded tuition and room and board, below vice president.

According to the GSB 2003-04 budget, out-of-state compensations this school year for the presidential and vice presidential positions were $15,601 each for tuition (including the summer semester) and $8,650 each for room and board. In-state fees came to $6,259 for tuition and $8,650 for room and board. Those figures are expected to rise with the Board of Regents approval of increased tuition rates and fees.

Room and board generally includes a full meal plan and a standard room, said GSB Finance Director David Boike.

GSB officials say the reduction of official duties assigned to the vice president’s office, notably the disbanding of the Appointment Committee in 2001, weighed heavily on the decision to suggest cutting funds from the office.

“[The committee] was taken out of the constitution, and now the president does all the appointing. The committee was slow and inefficient. The system we have now is closer to the way they do it at the federal level,” Boike said.

Boike said the reason the vice president’s office is being considered for cuts instead of the finance director’s is the difference in official responsibilities.

“During spring, I’m in the office 12 hours a day, excluding classes, for the allocation process. I’m in charge of allocating $1.5 million in student fees to clubs and organizations,” he said. “The vice president can just sit in his office and look pretty, for all it matters.”

Presiding over the Senate is the only official duty left in the vice president’s office, Boike said, aside from stepping in if the president is absent.

Albright said he believes he has earned his compensation.

“If they feel the vice president has too little to do, maybe they should look into changing that, or talk to the current vice president to see what his responsibilities were,” he said.

“I just think it’s hard for them to make that decision when they haven’t been in the vice president’s shoes, or consulted anyone who has.”

Senators will also vote Wednesday on a resolution that aims to build better relations between GSB and the Ames City Council by appointing nonvoting, ex-officio representatives to attend the other group’s meetings.

Ideally, GSB officials said, the arrangement would allow an ISU student to provide the City Council with a student perspective while a Council member would provide GSB members with a clearer idea of the workings of the city’s governing body.

The following correction was printed on Feb. 5, 2004:

Due to a reporting error, the Feb. 4 article “GSB considers cutting pay of vice president in half” contained an error. A bylaws change, not a resolution, will determine if the GSB vice president’s benefits will be cut in half. The Daily regrets the error.