Cuffs. By now, you’ve heard about Iowa State’s own organization formed to educate the student populace about bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.

The newly re-organized club has been caught in a maelstrom of media attention recently — they’re asking for $94 from GSB through the special allocations process.

Cuffs is almost through the allocations process, having been recommended for the funds by GSB’s finance committee last week.

The next step to funding is a vote by the entire GSB senate Nov. 5.

With 14 paying members, Cuffs has experienced a resurgence in popularity this fall.

And as the special allocations process is underway, controversy surrounds the club as much now as when it was created.

The group formed in 2000, received GSB funds and was subsequently zero-funded later that year.

Alex Olson, then GSB finance committee vice chairman, said the club did not follow GSB bylaws.

“The bylaws state that a group must provide a tangible benefit to the university, and that it has to be open to all paying students,” Olson said.

The bylaws issue has surfaced again, as another GSB finance committee vice chairman, Casey Harvey, is objecting to funding the group.

Harvey claims the media frenzy — which includes coverage in the Des Moines Register, on CNN, MSNBC, Dr. Laura, not to mention the Daily — has negated that broad benefit.

But Cuffs does benefit the entire ISU community through the services it provides.

BDSM — with its whips, chains, paddles and of course, handcuffs — has long been considered by society as a depraved sexual activity.

Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. This attitude is exactly why this club exists

Cuffs members want to educate an ignorant campus about the BDSM lifestyle, which members say hold to three tenets: “safe, sane, consensual.

Since higher education is about education and exploration, learning about safe lifestyle practices sounds like a broad benefit to us.

This time, GSB’s got their hands tied.

Fund Cuffs.