The debate about fee restructuring is raging at colleges across the country.

Students are suing schools nationwide over fee usage because they disagree with the allocation of the money to various organizations — ones they may not believe in, such as political, sexual orientation and religious organizations.

However, the hot-button issue hasn’t become a problem yet at Iowa State.

“No, we haven’t had any complaints here so far,” said Rob Wiese, president of the Government of the Student Body. “However, we are aware that there is a problem with the issue nationwide, and we are working to address it.”

Students at the University of Iowa told the same story.

“No students have complained,” said Sarah Pettinger, chairwoman of the budgeting committee of the U of I’s Student Government. “In the three years that I’ve been here, I have never seen a student complain.”

The best way of dealing with the problem may be preventing it from occurring in the first place, and that is exactly what GSB has in mind.

“We are already taking the necessary measures needed to prevent the issue, and we are doing what was recommended by our legal counsel,” Wiese said.

GSB has decided to come up with a new system that gives students more options in the matter of what their fees will be used for, he said.

“We are setting up a system where students can decide what types of categories they want their fees to go toward. This way a specific organization doesn’t get hurt,” Wiese said. “We are not cutting down on student fees — we are just trying to restructure them.”

On this issue, Pettinger said, the U of I is taking a different route.

“Since we have heard no complaints, it is not really something we have to change,” said Pettinger.

So are either of the organizations alarmed about this issue? Not at all, Wiese said.

“Hopefully, people at ISU won’t see any cause for alarm, either. It scares me to see people who try to stifle other groups just because they don’t believe in them,” he said. “It’s scary that people can be so short-sighted and foolish like that.”

Wiese said a variety of student organizations is what makes college campuses healthy.

“We need these groups,” Wiese said. “The idea here is open-mindedness. When people go out into the real world, they have to learn to live with these different types of people.”

Sentiments are the same at the U of I, but for different reasons.

The various student organization at the U of I are funded on equal footing with other groups, Pettinger said.

“It used to be where we did not fund any of the student organizations, but because of the Supreme Court ruling in 1995, ruling that all colleges were required to, legally, we couldn’t change that,” she said.

But if the issue ever did become a problem at the U of I, steps would be taken to resolve it, Pettinger said.

“First, we would want to make sure that the decision that is made is legal and doesn’t unfairly put other organizations at a disadvantage when it comes to budgeting,” she said.

“We also would want to make sure that all of the groups are considered equally as far as the budgeting process is concerned, and then we could go from there,” she said.

Sine Anahita, coordinator of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Student Services (LGBTSS), one of the organizations in question, agreed student group funding is not a problem at ISU.

The Dean of Students is supposed to support all students, including LGBT’s, she said.

“Gay and lesbian students also pay fees,” Anahita said. “We also have significant alumni support, and we were even able to give out a scholarship for the first time.”

One Iowa Stater said students probably are not complaining about possible fee restructuring because of unawareness.

“I can’t really give an opinion on the issue, because I don’t know enough about it to know what’s really going on,” said Jennifer Keul, senior in psychology and sociology. “I think that a lot of students are ignorant as to where their fees are going.”

However, Keul said, groups do have a right to expect some funding.

“Part of college is having your eyes opened to the world,” she said. “And these organizations represent that diversity, so these organizations have to be kept going.”