The ongoing debate between GSB and university officials over tailgating could have taken another step toward closure two weeks ago, had the GSB speaker of the senate honored an agreement, campus leaders said Monday.

Vice President for Student Affairs Thomas Hill and Student Union Board President Michael McCoy said a meeting was held two weeks ago with Tony Luken, GSB speaker of the senate, in Hill’s office.

The meeting was called to address the tailgating issue and the then recently introduced GSB resolution proposing the reduction of student fees allocated to the ISU athletic department, Hill and McCoy said.

Luken had five stipulations he wanted to see met by the university, Hill and McCoy said. If the university met those stipulations, Luken said he would drop his name from the bill, dissolving the resolution. Although the university has met the five stipulations, Luken has not dropped his name from the bill.

“If I couldn’t do it, I wouldn’t have agreed to it, and I did exactly what he asked,” Hill said. “We honored our obligation — I think it’s important he honor his.”

Hill and McCoy said the stipulations were as follows:

• Athletic Director Bruce Van De Velde submit a written letter of apology to GSB and the students about not including students in the parking decision;

• Van De Velde appear before students and GSB at a senate meeting and publicly apologize;

• Van De Velde answer senators’ questions and address their concerns at the meeting;

• A student-only, alcohol-free lot be created by the university;

• A student appreciation day be implemented at one of this season’s home football games.

“In my view, if Tony would have followed through with his agreement, the issue would have been resolved,” Hill said. “Both parties would have gotten what they wanted [through the agreement], and we would have come to a good compromise. Now I’m not sure where we are at this point.”

Van De Velde submitted a written letter of apology to GSB and appeared before the senate on Oct. 1 where he publicly apologized and answered senators’ questions.

Hill and the university have also expressed their support and commitment to creating a student-only, alcohol-free lot, which has not yet been implemented, but is in the process of being created.

Graduate Senator Dan Christensen, who has been working closely with the university on creating such a lot, said the lot will probably be implemented at the last home football game.

GSB President Mike Banasiak is also working with the athletic department to hold a student appreciation day Nov. 8 at the Kansas State football game.

Luken said the meeting did take place and he did discuss the tailgating issue, as well the resolution with McCoy and Hill.

Luken said he did not make five stipulations, but said he wanted to see the five issues brought to the table by the university because they were five issues senators were concerned over and wanted to see done.

“I made the agreement to drop the issue of removing student fees [from the athletic department], and I think the senate is well in its way to doing that,” Luken said. “I never agreed to removing the resolution, but that GSB would move on from the issue, which it did when they tabled it.”

Since the resolution is tabled, a vote hasn’t been taken on it, which means it could still be voted on and passed. Luken said he doubts it would.

“We’re just letting the process work out. The resolution served its purpose of letting the university know students and GSB won’t be pushed around,” Luken said. “It is a viable option, not a good one I support, but a lot of senators feel a lot more comfortable if it’s around. They see it as an insurance policy.”

McCoy and Hill said that was not what Luken agreed to.

GSB Vice President Ben Albright said there are two ways to look at dropping the resolution.

“I think [Luken] feels he did [drop it] by tabling it, but obviously that’s not what he agreed to,” Albright said.

He said the resolution is virtually null, and its continued existence hasn’t hindered or caused a setback in the progress toward reaching a resolution to the issue.

“No one has taken [the resolution] off the table, because most senators think it’s dead,” Albright said.

He said if the resolution comes up for a vote, it has no chance of passing. “It was my view that the tailgating debate had gone on long enough and if we got together and discuss what our issues and concerns were, which I thought we did, we could resolve it,” Hill said. “I thought we had in that meeting, but evidently we haven’t.

“I wish [Luken] would have [dropped the resolution], but there’s no a lot I can do about that.”

— Daily staff reports contributed to this article.