Despite a failed vote Wednesday in the Government of the Student Body senate, the Iowa Student Public Interest Research Group will continue its efforts to become a more permanent presence on campus.

The senate voted 15-11-3 against a bill that would have established the group as a GSB-funded office.

The Iowa Student Public Interest Research Group is a nonpartisan activism group that existed at Iowa State until funding structure changes forced them to disband in 1983. Before that time, the group boasted a number of achievements, including facilitating passage of the Iowa bottle and can deposit law and helping to halt construction of a nuclear power plant in Cedar Falls.

Debate over whether to adopt a bill that would change GSB bylaws to include the organization under a list of student-funded groups divided the senate.

“I think it’s too much of students’ money to spend without knowing enough about the organization,” said GSB President Mike Banasiak. “There needs to be a lot more questions asked.”

Senator Casey Harvey asked whether the group’s services were needed.

“It’s a public interest group for students, which I see as what the GSB does,” he said. “It’s a duplication of services. They could work on a smaller budget and use the GSB as a resource.”

GSB Finance Director David Boike said the process by which the group had gone about seeking the office was wrong.

“Being a student-funded office is not an open application process,” he said. “The group should not be asking us for the position — it should be a recommendation from the Finance Committee. They’re trying to jump the gun and attain a status for which they’re not deserving.”

Drew Miller, GSB off-campus senator, said he believed his vote was better used to vote against the bill and have it reconsidered later by the senate, possibly with more support.

“I voted no because it clearly wasn’t going to pass,” he said.

The bill’s rejection does not mean that the public interest research group will not be permanently established at Iowa State. The group will request regular allocations and go before the Finance Committee, which can decide whether to authorize the group to hire the full-time professional staff it needs, said Chelsea Lepley, the group’s organizing committee president.

“People don’t trust PIRG’s ability to maintain a successful presence. I think they fear including a mediocre group as a GSB office, but we’re better than mediocre,” Lepley said.

She said if GSB chooses to pass on funding a public interest research group, students will miss out on an opportunity to the affect the bodies that govern them.

Lepley said without the senate categorizing the ISU group as a GSB-funded office, the group would be unable to maintain a budget that would allow it to provide a sustained influence on campus. “We’re not going to hire someone for just a semester or two,” she said.

Nick Rugen, the group’s campus organizer, said the senate disregarded the tangible benefits the group has already provided without being a fully funded professional office, such as registering 4,000 students to vote from 2002 to 2003.

A normal group cannot use its budget to hire staff, but the Finance Committee can change those bylaws with a two-thirds majority vote.

GSB also voted against an amended version of the “Reducing Our Budget” bill, which would have changed funding bylaws for the office of vice president.

The senate voted 11-18 on the bill, falling well short of the two-thirds majority needed to change a bylaw.

— Tom Barton contributed to this article.