Though many student organizations and clubs have not yet received monetary allocations from the Government of the Student Body, they are still able to spend money, GSB officials said.

“All the [clubs and organizations] need to do is write a voucher as if they had the money,” said David Boike, GSB finance director.

T.J. Schneider, GSB president, said groups are allowed to deficit spend.

“Deficit spending is when you can spend out of an account even though there is no money in it,” he said.

Groups can go to the accounting office in the Memorial Union and get a voucher for their pre-approved items, Schneider said. Organization accounts will be replenished when the money is distributed to the clubs.

Boike said a problem arose earlier this semester when Warren Madden, vice president for Business and Finance, informed him that GSB’s estimate of student fees that were to be received was wrong.

When Boike learned of the situation, he said he froze allocations to the clubs.

Boike said GSB has about $1.5 million to give to clubs and organizations. The money distributed comes from fees paid by each student.

To figure out how much money GSB has to allocate for the next year, Boike said it estimates the number of students for the upcoming year.

After GSB has that number, they estimate how much they will receive from student fees.

Schneider said student organizations and clubs will receive their money. If necessary, GSB will withdraw money from a reserve to fund the organizations.

“I can’t say that [withdrawing funds from a reserve account] won’t affect next year,” Boike said. “I’m taking a wait-and-see approach.”

Having less money available in the future is a possible effect of withdrawing from the reserve account, he said.

“The amount of money in the reserve is mandated by law. We must refill the reserve, which may mean less money for next year,” Boike said.

Jason Clark, member of Iowa State’s Karate Club, said his group hasn’t experienced any problems due to the holdup.

“We have had no problems accessing our GSB allocation. As I understand it, the money is distributed uniformly on some sort of a time schedule, but all clubs were given permission to deficit spend into their GSB allocations as needed this year,” he said.

Clark, senior in aerospace engineering, said his club has utilized the deficit spending option.

“We used deficit spending for our recent trip to the National Collegiate Tae Kwon Do Championships in Puerto Rico, for which we were given an allocation last year,” he said.

Boike said he has received many phone calls about clubs and their funding. He would like organizations to contact him at [email protected] if they have questions.

“The money should be there shortly,” he said.