In an attempt to resolve recent disputes within the Government of the Student Body, two bills were proposed at the meeting Wednesday night to give GSB’s image a makeover.

The bill titled “Increasing Senate Accountability,” proposed in part by Marcia Johnson, minority, and Matt Craft, Richardson Court Association, recognizes that “GSB senators need to increase their accountability to their constituency and ISU community at large.”

The bill states that senators must apply a method of open communication and interaction. The method has been added to GSB constitution bylaws requiring all senators to establish or take part in a “Meet Your Senator(s) Day.”

Johnson said the bill’s purpose is to expand awareness of GSB.

“Our biggest problem as senators and an organization is that people don’t know who we are,” Johnson said.

Johnson said she got the idea for the bill from the Big 12 Student Government Conference, which was held last November in Boulder, Colo.

“Some universities do this already, and it works out well. This system would make it easier and better to fix the situation,” she said.

“Students don’t know who their representatives are,” said Bryan Burkhardt, engineering. “We want them to know who they can go to, and having a day to allow them to meet us would be very helpful.”

GSB members say they have been plagued by a lack of respect, evident in many ways, including an extremely low voter turnout for the new constitution in January.

In addition, a survey prepared by the public information committee showed a large amount of student apathy and unawareness, and a student at the full executive slate debate last week told the candidates that GSB is not taken seriously.

“We hope to get more students involved in GSB and hold more senators accountable to their constituents,” Craft said. “We’d like to see a lot more students involved in the decision-making process.”

In response to students’ indifference about GSB, the senate has decided to either establish or regain respect.

Another route GSB is taking is the “Representing our Constituency with Class” bill, which sets a standard of dress for GSB senate meetings.

The bill calls for all voting and non-voting members of the senate to come to meetings dressed in a “business casual” manner.

“I take this very seriously,” said Matt Ostanik, design. “It doesn’t force you to dress a certain way; it’s intentionally vague and meant to be a guideline.”

“It’s not something to take to the extreme, but it would be nice to step up,” said Kate Kjergaard, LAS. “There is pride in senate. We are representatives to constituents and councils and we should do that in the best possible way.”

This bill, which was new business Wednesday night, was given just five minutes for discussion. Its fate will likely be determined next week.

“It will be an interesting debate,” said Rob Wiese, president of GSB. “It wouldn’t be bad for me, but it’s up to [the senators] to decide.”

Wiese said the senate’s actions to improve its credibility and effectiveness are a positive step.

“‘Meet Your Senator Day’ is great. It will give people a chance to say, ‘you’re my senator, do this for me,'” he said.

“We can get bills written and get things done,” he said.

In other news, the GSB:

• Seated J. Matt Peterson as an off-campus senator with unanimous consent.

• Seated Jared McLaren as director of online resources with unanimous consent.

• Seated Mike Poray as a Graduate Student Senate finance committee member with unanimous consent.

• Withdrew the bill for funding the ISU Forensics Club upon request by the club.

• Passed the Alliance bill 19-7, with an amendment that the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Ally Alliance meet with a GSB funding committee member biweekly.