With two votes to spare, the Government of the Student Body senate overturned a presidential veto to deny funding to a student group.

In a 27-8-1 vote, the GSB senate upheld a prior ruling to fund the student group Engineers Without Frontiers, despite a veto from GSB President Mike Banasiak.

Senators debated for an hour whether the group should be categorized as a pre-professional organization because of possible opportunities within the group specifically designed to benefit only engineering students.

Officials argued engineering students participating in the group would be able to obtain internships, jobs and academic credit through participating.

“It passively discriminates against students. It says it’s open to everyone, but you have more benefits if you’re an engineer because it gives you more of an educational advantage,” said Andrew Tugan, liberal arts and sciences senator.

Ryan Legg, president of the group, has said students would not be able to obtain academic credit; internships are made available through the national organization, not the ISU branch; and members have to obtain internships on their own.

Legg said the focus of the group is humanitarian aid and service to communities through engineering, a mission all students can participate in, not just engineers.

Senators ultimately decided the service the group provides to the Ames community and its openness to all students did not classify it as a pre-professional group and merited funding.

Banasiak said he did not veto funding because he believes they are a pre-professional organization, but because of the underlying problem the bylaws cause in situations with groups such as this one.

“There has been a lot of debate over how to interpret in our bylaws what a pre-professional group is, and that is the bigger problem that needs to be brought to the surface,” he said. “We need to clear this up in our bylaws in order to give the group a fair chance of getting funding, as well as set a precedent for future groups that come for funding.”