Members of the Veishea Committee and fans of the Veishea parade breathed a sigh of relief at Wednesday night’s Government of the Student Body meeting.

At GSB’s regular meeting in the Campanile Room of the Memorial Union, GSB senators voted 24-4-1 in favor of funding television coverage of the Veishea parade by KDSM. GSB will allocate $4,000 from the discretionary account to help the organization pay for the air time.

Tony Luken, speaker of the GSB senate and senior in political science, said this was the biggest discretionary request of the year.

Cory Bailey, Veishea general co-chairman and senior in agricultural business, said he feels really good about GSB’s decision to fund coverage of the parade.

“We are very happy to have GSB support,” Bailey said.

Kerryann Mehmen, Veishea general co-chairwoman and senior in agricultural education, said she hopes GSB’s support of KDSM coverage will help Veishea to build a new relationship with the television station.

“In the past, KCCI had donated manpower and air time, because they saw coverage of the parade as a good business interest. However, this year they said they have concerns with lack of manpower needed to cover a large, live event such as Veishea,” Mehmen said. “Hopefully, through this trial period with KDSM, they will receive high viewership and donate in the future.”

Mehmen said if GSB had decided not to fund TV coverage of the parade, Veishea would have been forced to raise dues and fees to help meet the cost of coverage. She also said Veishea has a type of cushion in place, but that cushion would have been totally absorbed if they would have been forced to accommodate for the cost. She also said Veishea could have used some donation money they received to help with costs.

An amendment to the bill was proposed during the meeting by Jeremy Schweitzer, Richardson Court Association senator and sophomore in English, which called for an enacted clause that would stipulate GSB not fund Veishea parade coverage in the future. The amendment failed.

“In the future, the amendment would have restricted the finance committee from giving money to Veishea for television coverage,” Schweitzer said. “Veishea is a great event, and I will be participating in it this year, but I’m not sure about the tangible benefits for students it will give, and I don’t believe the senate should have passed the bill because the coverage helps with recruitment.”

Schweitzer said he was concerned when the Veishea general co-chairs, who were at the meeting, said it was possible for them to pay for coverage. He said he voted no on the bill because his amendment failed.

Kristin Sherk, off-campus senator and graduate student in political science, also voted no. She said coverage of the parade only benefits alumni and not students.

Luken said this is not true. He said students, as well as alumni, watch Veishea coverage. He gave an example of how last year a lot of students commented to him about seeing him on television.

“The first two things people think about when they think of Iowa State is the campanile and Veishea,” Luken said.

Henry Alliger, senator from the college of agriculture and sophomore in animal science, said he believes Veishea has done their best to handle the issue internally.

“If I were building a float, and I had put so much time into it, I would be extremely disappointed if my float wasn’t on TV,” Alliger said.