After wrapping up a busy fall semester, the Government of the Student Body has set high goals for the spring term.

A major priority is to increase dwindling student participation in GSB, said Matt Craft, GSB president.

“Bottom line, we need more student participation,” Craft said. “The elections will be a good evaluation of how effective we have been.”

With the GSB elections being midway through spring semester, senators hope to see an increase in the percentage of student voters — more than the 6 percent turnout in last spring’s elections.

“I’m looking forward to the elections,” said Michel Pogge, election commissioner and off-campus senator. “We want to push to get people out to vote.”

Pogge has set a goal of getting 3,000 student votes in this spring’s election, an increase of about 50 percent from last year.

“If we can get 3,000 students to vote, this will be the biggest election in the last 17 years,” he said.

The GSB election process is shifting from traditional paper ballots to electronic voting.

The senate passed a resolution in November to computerize the voting process. For the first year, the computerized voting only will be at designated polling locations. After the senate reviews the system, voting may be expanded to the Internet, reducing or eliminating physical polling stations.

The election commission is working with the ISU Computation Center to develop a secure voting system. As of now, Pogge said, it is uncertain whether the system will be ready for the upcoming elections.

“It’s going good and it’s a good system, but we have to make sure it’s secure,” he said. “It’s a complicated process.”

Pogge said it would be determined in about a month if the system has a “green light” for this election.

In addition to the election, the finance committee will face the annual spring funding process for student organizations.

“The student groups we support come to us, and we budget money for them for next year,” Craft said.

GSB allocates money to more than 100 student organizations, spending about $1.3 million annually, he said.

Finally, plans for possible improvements on the Memorial Union will affect GSB and the student fees committee.

“GSB plays a role in the future of the Memorial Union because the student fees committee will have to decide how much financial support the students will give,” Craft said.