GSB to rethink funding Cuffs
October 25, 2000
The Government of the Student Body decided Wednesday night to re-evaluate the zero-funding decision given earlier to the student organization Cuffs.
GSB voted to send the decision back to the finance committee for further evaluation, despite the opposition of Alex Olson, off campus.
During the Fall Special Allocation sessions, the finance committee came to the conclusion that Cuffs, a sado-masochistic interest group, was not eligible for GSB funding because it holds some meetings that are not open to all students. Cuffs’ social meetings require potential members to be interviewed before admittance to the group.
Funding was also denied because the group failed to show tangible evidence the organization provided to the university.
Cuffs President John Dorsey told GSB Wednesday night that the group has made the necessary changes to its policies and that it now should be able to receive GSB money. Dorsey, senior in construction engineering, said Cuffs is now fully committed to working with GSB to comply with the rules and regulations.
“We’ve now opened our club to all students, faculty and staff,” Dorsey said. “We’ve also been publishing papers, pamphlets and we’ve been talking to classes about sexual diversity. We are now in compliance with the GSB bylaws because we are open to everybody, and we have shown our benefit to the university.”
The closed social meetings have been eliminated from the Cuffs agenda, and their interviews now are being conducted only to see if potential members are indeed fee-paying members of Iowa State.
The main opponent of re-evaluating Cuffs’ funding was Alex Olson, vice chairman of the finance committee. Olson expressed his concern in a written argument that he distributed to all of the senators. He asked the question, “If an organization can simply change their meetings this quickly, what prevents them from changing them back?”
Olson also pointed out that when Cuffs’ financial adviser recommended that the group separate the open and closed meetings, Cuffs members claimed it was not in the group’s best interest to do so.
“Originally, Cuffs said they would not open their meetings to all students. Now that they say they’ve changed, what assurances do we have that in three weeks they won’t add these meetings right back in?” he said.
Olson went on to urge the senate to sit on this issue and allow Cuffs to go through regular allocations in the spring.