The Government of the Student Body kicked off the semester Wednesday night with its first meeting of the year.

Four senators and one cabinet member were seated, and two senators introduced a bill to approve student fee money for CyRide’s Brown Route.

The senate received a presentation on the Brown Route by Bob Bourne, director of CyRide, and Virginia Arthur, associate director of Residence Life.

Because of budget cuts in the Department of Residence, the Brown Route, which runs from the Towers Residence Association to central campus, will run every 40 minutes rather than the previous running schedule of every 20 minutes.

Jonathon Weaver, Towers, and Lee Kaiser, engineering, introduced a bill proposing the use of CyRide’s contingency fund to continue running the route every 20 minutes during this academic year.

The contingency fund comes from a surplus in Iowa State student fees. The fund is restricted to “transit-related purposes,” and the Brown Route qualifies under this constraint, Bourne said.

GSB must approve CyRide’s use of the fund.

The bill will allow the Brown Route to run its 20-minute schedule from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., except from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., when it runs on a 40-minute cycle.

At the meeting, Some GSB senators expressed concern that the senate has been portrayed negatively in the Brown Route issue. Alex Olson, off campus, said the situation has made GSB seem as if it is not looking out for students.

The bill will be discussed further at next week’s meeting.

Senators seated during the meeting were: Kietha Renfroe, junior in elementary education, American ethnic minority; Darrell Redman, graduate student in interdisciplinary graduate studies, non-traditional; Andrew Gruman, sophomore in construction engineering, Towers; and Todd Doorenbos, graduate student in economics and liberal arts and sciences, graduate student.

Erin Reicks, graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies, was seated as the director of public information.