Eighteen thousand dollars is a lot of money. Just ask the student organizations who have been deficit spending since last fall, waiting for Government of the Student Body allocations to kick in. Or maybe the nervous students organization representatives at the GSB meeting on Wednesday night, desperately hoping for funding.

In a year of budget mishaps and funding cuts, $18,000 can do wonders. GSB made the right move when it decided to transfer that amount, the remainder of the GSB Fall Comedy Festival account, into the Regular Allocations Account.

Remember the GSB Fall Comedy Festivals? Yeah, we didn’t either. GSB Vice President Joe Darr’s idea of bringing the campus together over a comedy event was pleasant enough, but the $28,000 spent to bring in David Cross and Tony Rock seemed a bit opulent, especially given massive tuition increases and deficit spending by student groups. This type of event has to start small, gain a reputation and then maybe — and we do emphasize maybe — grow into a $40,000 show.

Student government shouldn’t have to play the role of booking lectures and concerts; for that we have the Committee on Lectures and the Iowa State Center.

GSB President T.J. Schneider has told the Daily that he will veto the bill affecting the GSB Fall Comedy Festival account. To do so would fly in the face of the budget crisis experienced by GSB in the last semester, make Schneider look like he cared more about preserving a pet project than student funds and put another feather in the cap of those who gripe endlessly about the ineffectiveness of GSB. Senator Dan Kline was right in calling the fall events a luxury; a luxury that should be put back into Regular Student Allocations.

Veishea knows the problems inherent with trying to find big-name entertainers to lure students to campus. From Black-Eyed Peas to Soul Asylum to Vertical Horizon, the past three years of Veishea concerts have left the campus fairly disappointed. Granted, it is difficult to find any one event that will appeal to 25,000 students, a lesson that both Veishea and GSB can attest to.

So Veishea decided to parcel its money into other activities, from a sky-diving simulator to more regional talent in the Battle of the Bands. Though the success or failure of these events remains to be seen, at least they realized that spending money on sparsely-attended rock shows is not the best way to celebrate Iowa State. And, unlike GSB, Veishea’s purpose includes entertainment, so spending money on these events is not out of the question. All of the money saved from cutting the concert, though, should go towards improving other parts of Veishea, such as Taste of Veishea.

Scaling back performances, re-evaluating priorities; both GSB and Veishea have taken the practical route, saving money and face.