-After a year battling city ordinances weighing heavily on students’ shoulders, a group of students are attempting to form a group to bring student views to the forefront.

Steve Skutnik, one of the founders of the group, said students cannot appear as a fractured opposition.

“We’re realizing we want to present a united front for student issues,” said Skutnik, graduate student in physics and astronomy.

Students are a “vocal minority of Ames residents,” he added.

The group met unofficially for the first and only time Aug. 31, but Skutnik said the formation of the group has been in the works for months.

Representatives from the Government of the Student Body, ISU Greens and ex officio student council member Nathan Johnston were in attendance at the meeting.

Johnston, a junior in finance, said the attendees discussing the issues were “a good group of minds.”

“We came up with ten different points that were city/resident issues that affected students,” he said.

The different issues discussed included the alcohol ordinance which banned drink buffet specials, the overoccupancy issue, the couch ordinance which restricted indoor furniture being placed on lawns, and zoning and student housing.

William Rock, vice speaker of the GSB senate, said the group talked much about zoning.

“We looked into the definition of how [Ames] classifies low-density, middle-density and high-density,” said Rock, senior in agriculture business.

The group wants to investigate ways to adapt the definitions of the density areas, he said.

“There are a lot of students who want to live in their own houses instead of apartments, but can’t afford to because of occupancy limits,” Rock said.

Skutnik said the group would like to see the occupancy limits move toward one person per bedroom.

“Students obviously want housing close to campus,” Skutnik said. “The problem is, however, these are low density.”

One solution discussed at the meeting was a waiver renters could use to apply for an additional person per bedroom on a case-by-case basis, Skutnik said.

The group is interested in finding ways to accommodate students and residents, he said.

Councilman Riad Mahayni said he does not think the overoccupancy ordinance burdens students.

“This ordinance is not new,” Mahayani said. “It’s more than 20 years old in the city.”

At its Sept. 9 meeting, the City Council approved funding for an education campaign to help students and residents communicate and better understand occupancy limits.

“The city is attempting to take initiatives to improve misunderstandings in the environment between the city and the students,” Mahayni said. “I think the city is committed to students.”

Alcohol restrictions were also on the group’s agenda. The City Council passed a prohibition on “all-you-can-drink” bar specials at its March 4 meeting.

The drink special ban is an “ineffective ordinance based on unsound science,” Skutnik said.

“Not only does it take accountability away from the industry, but it doesn’t achieve the purpose it was designed to do,” he said. “It regards adults as incapable of making responsible choices for themselves.”

The Ames smoking ban, which was struck down by the Iowa Supreme Court in May, was discussed, but the group had no uniform opinion on the ban, Skutnik said.

Mahayni said he thinks the formation of the group is a good idea.

“I think their voices need to be heard,” he said.

In addition to talks on city issues that affect students, the group wants to rally behind a City Council candidate who embraces student issues, Skutnik said.

“It’s basically a [political action committee] for students in the next election,” he said.

Rock said if the group acts as a political action committee and endorses a specific candidate, it would not be eligible for funding from GSB like other student groups.

Funding has not been really looked into, he added.

To become an official student organization, Rock said the group needs a president, treasurer and faculty or staff adviser, and those three people need to sign a form with the Dean of Students Office.

Johnston, who plans on running for City Council this fall, said he is also working with the GSB president to form a City Council committee to discuss student issues. If the committee is formed, Johnston said it would absorb members of this group and would make it obsolete.