The Government of the Student Body is looking toward the new semester with optimism, despite growing challenges the ISU community faces this spring.

“Iowa State is going to be faced with many new challenges,” said Amanda Taylor, agriculture. “Students and faculty alike will feel the brunt of the budget cuts this year.”

Small programs within colleges will be cut, combined with others or reorganized, and some support staff and advisers may be eliminated, she said.

Students will have to take a more active role with their professors as class sizes increase, Taylor said.

“Students may have to work harder at finding help or answers to questions,” she said. “However, the right people are all still here – they may just be a little more difficult to access.”

Tony Luken, LAS, said GSB has tried to ease the effects of budget cuts on the student body by successfully petitioning ISU President Gregory Geoffroy to raise the set-aside rate, which increased the university’s reserve of financial aid.

But another battle to make education affordable looms on the horizon with the state Legislature, he said.

“GSB must take the war over tuition to the real battlefield – the statehouse,” Luken said.

GSB President Andy Tofilon said students already have felt the first impacts of budget cuts when they registered for spring classes and discovered many classes were already closed. He said students can expect much larger classes this spring.

“This semester we will be reaching out to students and parents to contact their legislators in Des Moines and tell them that higher education needs to be a higher priority in the state,” Tofilon said.

Several senators said the budget problem is not an issue that is going to disappear soon.

“GSB will continue to fight the rising cost of tuition,” Taylor said. “However, this is going to be an uphill battle, not just this year, but most of the years to come as well.”

This spring, GSB will allocate about $1.3 million to student organizations, said William Tinder, RCA.

“This year, several changes have occurred, which will hopefully make the upcoming allocation process easier for student organizations,” he said.

GSB passed amendments to streamline the finance bylaws during the fall semester and make the funding process more “user-friendly,” Tinder said.

Line-item transfers have been simplified, he said, allowing groups to manage their own finances with less paperwork and hassle. Criteria dues for student organizations also were recently removed, he said.

GSB is working to make the finance process accessible online, Tofilon said. Student groups soon will be able to fill out all forms online and will only have to meet with the GSB finance committee once or twice a year.

“Hopefully, these and the other changes passed will allow students better access to GSB monetary resources, while making sure that allocations remain fair and impartial,” Tinder said.

Parking difficulties on campus are another challenge GSB is preparing to tackle in the spring semester.

“The parking problem on campus needs to be addressed,” Luken said. “GSB has been working hard with DPS in expanding certain lots.”

GSB is looking to increase the amount of parking space available on campus, Tofilon said, including spots for faculty members and near greek communities or the residence halls.

“Students are always complaining about parking, as they should,” he said.

GSB and DPS administration will release more specifics about improvements in campus parking within the next several weeks, Tofilon said.

GSB has worked with DPS and has taken large strides to increase campus safety.

“I’d be willing to bet that we have one of the safest, if not the safest, campuses in the nation,” Luken said. “But there is always room for improvement.”