For the loyal readers out there who haven’t already made the connection, I indeed was Government of the Student Body president last year.

I spent countless hours on issues that nobody has even heard of, but it was one of the best things I have ever done. It’s nice to be doing something different, but I miss some of the side benefits of the position.

For example, it always served as a conversation starter. Whenever one of my friends would introduce me to someone, the words, “he’s the GSB president” would usually follow. It is at that point in time that I would be asked a few questions that people were burning to know. One of those questions would almost always be “What is President Jischke really like?”

So for all the people that have desired to know just what Martin C. Jischke is really like, the following column is for you.

I don’t really feel like making a statue of the guy, but I do feel like he got a little bit of a bad rap. Like anyone, he was indeed weak in some areas, most notably being able to connect with students.

Still, many of the things that people rag on him for aren’t quite fair either.

First, research always will be very prominent in this university. We are a land-grant university, and we get a lot of cool things for being one.

However, one of the requirements for being a land-grant is that we conduct a lot of research.

We can’t take the benefits of being a land-grant and not play by the rules. So that means, no matter who the next president is, research will still have a large role.

Second, Jischke most definitely spends a lot of time away from Beardshear on fund-raising missions. Many days have been spent at alumni breakfasts and booster club functions. Contrary to popular belief, he doesn’t smoke hundred- dollar bills for fun, so where do you think that money is going?

Could it quite possibly be for projects that we don’t want to pay for out of tuition? I would be willing to bet a lot of engineers are going to get a much better education thanks to the Howes. Take away all the buildings on campus named for donors and you’ll see how much boosters have helped our education.

Without aggressive fund-raising efforts, Iowa State would be nowhere near the campus it is today.

Yeah, Jischke never really did connect with the student body. He’s just so formal that it’s difficult to really want to follow him into a foxhole.

He’s Dean Wormer from “Animal House” instead of the guy spelling I-S-U in front of the student section. If he could have loosened up around the student body, then it would have substantially helped the perception about him.

Even something little, like walking every morning from the Knoll to Beardshear instead of driving, would have made a big difference.

You are right when you think that the university does not always work for what the students want.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the right to get what we want all the time because Iowa State does not exist for its students.

It is there for the state of Iowa, and that is why the taxpayers pay for 75 percent of Iowa State’s budget.

Unless Iowa State’s budget comes solely from our tuition dollars, we’re never going to get everything we want. And neither is the faculty. Or the alumni. Or the state.

Finally, the university president is not going to be someone who always knows your name, brings you chicken soup when you’re sick and calls to see if you want to split a pizza.

That’s not Jischke’s job. It’s Tom Hill’s. If the Student Affairs division stops being receptive to our needs, then we’ve got a problem. Above that, we are on an equal field with the other entities of the university.

Much of what Martin Jischke was blamed for during his time here isn’t really his doing. Iowa State is a land-grant institution that will always place a high emphasis on research no matter whom the president is.

Fund raising is key in every institution of higher education around this country and the next president better be good at it, otherwise we’ll really start to see our education suffer. As students, we will always have to compete with the faculty, the alumni and the state because all of us have a personal stake in this place.

If you really believe that all those things are because of Jischke, then you are the one giving him way too much power.

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Matt Craft is a senior in secondary education from La Porte City.