Monday, Oct. 6, 10:17 a.m.

David Boike arrives at the GSB office and sits down at his computer to check his e-mail. A bulletin board on the wall is covered with Dave Matthews Band memorabilia, and the strains of the band’s hit “Crash” emanate from the computer’s speakers.

One message makes Boike jerk his head back from the screen, startled.

“What the hell?” he exclaims.

In a blur of motion, Boike spins in his chair to face Speaker of the Senate Tony Luken, who just walked into the office.

Boike explains the e-mail — from a university judicial affairs official regarding a conversation the young men had about a professor — to Luken.

“It sounds like they’re trying to compile information on him to use in some sort of legal actions. What the hell do I say?” Boike asks.

“Say it’s a political matter — end of discussion,” Luken replies.

“Do I call her and ask her why she wants that information?” Boike asks.

Luken says no. He doesn’t want to deal with the issue anymore.

Boike swivels in his chair and composes a reply to the message. Just as Boike sends the e-mail, a GSB office assistant walks into the office. The professor in question is on the phone.

Boike’s eyes widen as he looks at Luken, who shares his alarm.

The call is about an unrelated matter, the assistant explains.

Boike and Luken breathe a heavy sigh of relief and share a laugh.

“Dodged that bullet,” Luken says with a smile.

“Most of my day is putting out fires likes this, where people from the [university] administration try to drag me into things,” Boike says.

10:32 a.m.

Boike finishes going over the messages in his e-mail inbox.

“Damn it!” he shouts suddenly. Another fire.

Fifteen of the 40 groups applying for specially allocated GSB funds received regular GSB funds last spring. Boike grabs a copy of the GSB bylaws and flips to the finance section, looking for the appropriate article to quote in his e-mail.

Finding it, he types the article from the bylaws, “Organizations shall be eligible to request Special Allocations except in the event that the organization requested Regular Allocations. An organization may also request Special Allocations in the event that the organization has incurred some unforeseen expense.”

Boike lists the names of the organizations who have requested Special Allocations and sets a deadline for when unforeseen expenses need to be submitted.

In large, bold, black letters, he types “IMMEDIATELY. I CANNOT BEND ON THIS.”

This is the second time in Boike’s two-term career as finance director he has had to “drop the hammer” on campus groups, he explains.

“This is the first time I’ve had to so something like this since I had to cut off the deadline for Regular Allocations last year, which lead up to all-out war with the executive branch last year,” he says. “I cut off the deadline and [2002-03 GSB President] T.J. [Schneider] tried to give groups [budget] packets behind my back.

“That’s not the way it works. I get to run the finance process — get the hell out. [The president] gets to sign [the spending bill] when it’s all done with, and he didn’t understand that.”

Boike goes on to explain the tensions created between he and Schneider last year. He looks up and points to piece of GSB letterhead stuck to a bulletin board labeled “GSB Office Conduct rules.”

“That was drawn up in response to the many problems we had with T.J. and some of the people in the cabinet last year,” Boike says. “It’s just a joke, but they are pretty much adhered to.”

12:05 p.m.

Time for lunch. Boike sits at a table in the Maintenance Shop across from his girlfriend, Natalie Spray, junior in journalism and mass communication.

He and Spray, a Daily staff writer, talk about the national media attention received by Cuffs, Iowa State’s sado-masochism club.

“I got a message on my answering machine at home from MSNBC, and [my roommate] and I just stared at the machine with our jaws dropped for about a minute,” he says, taking a bite of his sandwich. “That was the first time a national news organization has called my house about GSB affairs.”

Boike says he was relieved when he found out the reporter didn’t want to talk to him, but instead wanted to know how to contact the Cuffs president.

“No matter how the Cuffs decision goes, I don’t want to be quoted on national news,” he explains. “Because I just chair the Finance Committee meetings, I don’t make the decision. Why should I be attached to it?”

7:04 p.m.

After class and working three hours at his job with Kingland Systems Corporation — where he sits at a computer and types code — Boike sits down at another computer, the one in his GSB office this time.

“On a normal day, I spend about five or six hours in the GSB office working as Finance Director, and with doing that combined with my job at Kingland, I usually spend somewhere between eight to twelve hours in front of a computer,” he explains.

“If I were at home, I’d just be staring at the TV.”

8:03 p.m.

With Special Allocations funding coming up, Boike decides to give a mock Special Allocations budget packet to GSB’s finance committee. Included in the packet are items he hopes committee members will point out as “non-fundable.”

“Remember, you’re going to get the ‘crying’ group, ‘you hate us’ group and ‘you’re discriminating against us’ group,” Boike says. “I’m going to give you the most common lines groups use when they don’t get funding for something they want.

“We need to be respectful of these groups and do our best to explain to them why we can’t fund something. We need to let them know we aren’t discriminating [against] them.”

The mock Special Allocations process begins. The committee goes over the packet — item by item — striking practically every item that doesn’t coordinate with the finance bylaws.

Boike dramatizes what he says groups act like during the regular funding process, whining like a 5-year-old who wants candy.

“Can’t you just give us some money?” he pleads.

A committee member starts to explain why the item can’t be funded. He interrupts her.

“Now you’re just discriminating against me because I’m Danish,” Boike says. The committee members laugh.

The committee finishes the mock funding lesson, and Boike congratulates them. They found every item on the budget that didn’t fall within the committee’s funding guidelines.

Having “put out fires” and ensured his committee will be ready for the upcoming, grueling allocation process, Boike heads home to relax and do homework.

There will be more fires to put out tomorrow.