Cuffs, a local organization specializing in education about sado-masochistic lifestyles, was recommended for a special allocation by the Government of the Student Body Finance Committee Friday with a vote of 5-3.

The senate will vote Nov. 5 on whether to allocate the $94 requested by the group.

The recommendation comes after the group was given abundant attention from national and local media.

The Des Moines Register published an article Oct. 1 stating the group had re-formed after dissolving the previous spring and was considered immoral by the Iowa Family Policy Center in Pleasant Hill. Since then, a number of national media, including CNN and MSNBC, have picked up on the story.

GSB Finance Director David Boike said the request for $94 isn’t what is important to a committee that allocated $18,981 this year.

“The money isn’t the issue, it’s the recognition,” Boike said. “It’s the ‘we are funded by GSB’.”

Casey Harvey, Finance Committee vice chairman, said he felt the group did not comply with the bylaw that requires it to be beneficial to a broad group of people.

Section 13.2.1.2 in the GSB bylaws states, “the organization shall provide a broad, tangible benefit to the university community.”

Harvey said the coverage of the group by the media has negated that benefit.

“Cuffs has been in the Des Moines Register, the Drudge Report, Scarborough Country on MSNBC, Dr. Laura on syndicated radio nationwide and several other press. And, all of it’s been very negative press, which I think isn’t a broad tangible benefit to the university,” Harvey said during the financial committee hearing.

Harvey said many people have come to him with concerns about Cuffs creating a poor image for the university.

He said while he does not think it is GSB’s job to tell people what is moral and immoral, it is their job to make sure the organization complies with the bylaws.

“It’s my job to bring that up,” Harvey said. “Some people feel that there is not enough interest for it to be a group.”

Harvey said the group may also not meet bylaw 13.2.1.4, which states it must demonstrate a “consistent service to the University as a functional student organization.”

Harvey said he was concerned the group dissolved last spring.

“Is it a broad, consistent service, or is it a couple of people getting together?” Harvey asked.

Cara Harris, president of the Iowa State chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said denying funding to Cuffs because of the subject matter of the group would be a violation of the First Amendment.

“It’s basically discriminating against what a person has to say and how a person conducts their life,” Harris said during the hearing. “There is freedom of association and freedom of speech in the First Amendment, and these things have to be protected.

“If not, then how are we going to determine what’s right and what’s wrong and what’s moral and what’s not?”

Harlan “Duane” Long, Jr., president of Cuffs and senior in psychology, could not be reached for comment.