Off-campus students will soon be regaining their voice in student government.

The Off-Campus Council has been effectively dormant for two years, but a group of students are working to revive it.

Adam Obrecht, a coordinator of the new OCC, said it is the governing body of off-campus students equivalent to the IRHA, Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council.

Obrecht said OCC hopes to pass a constitution to restart the organization.

“OCC wasn’t even registered last year,” he said.

“If the constitution passes, then we’ll become a legitimate organization to govern the 11,000-plus off-campus students,” Obrecht said.

The constitutional elections will be on Tuesday, Obrecht said.

The constitution will establish an eight-person council. Four seats will for specific areas in Ames, and two seats will be for outside of Ames, split north and south of I-35, and two will be at-large.

“The next step after the constitution vote would be to elect candidates to become council members,” Obrecht said.

Council members will serve one-year terms, with elections in November and April. Obrecht said the April elections will be in conjunction with Government of the Student Body elections.

Obrecht said the old OCC fell because it became too large.

“There were tons of committees that didn’t report to each other. It collapsed on itself,” he said.

Obrecht said the organization will take on its own goals.

“[OCC] hasn’t been largely active for a long while, so there aren’t too many people who understand the old way,” he said.

“When the council gets seated, obviously they will take their own shape and follow their own ideas.”

Obrecht said the off-campus students need a voice on campus.

“We want a governing body we can go to or be a part of,” he said.

He said one goal is to find issues worth lobbying for. Some issues mentioned were landlord-tenant agreements, Cy-Ride routes and better information sources on cancelling classes during winter weather for off-campus students.

Students can email [email protected] or go to http://www.iastate.edu/~stu_org/OCC for more information.