Editor’s note: This is the fifth of five profiles on the slates running for Government of the Student Body president and vice president. The profiles ran through this week.

Rory Flaherty and Jeff Halliburton say as Government of the Student Body president and vice president, they would put student interests first.

Flaherty, 20, is a junior in construction engineering from Le Mars. Halliburton, 21, is a junior in anthropology form Ames. Flaherty is a GSB off-campus senator and a sports columnist for the Iowa State Daily.

Halliburton said a big part of his job as vice president would be to work as a team with the president. “The most important thing I want to do is to try and add more creditability and accountability to the office and GSB as a whole,” he said.

To put students first, Flaherty and Halliburton said they want to initiate a student-focused agenda. “We believe we can achieve this by improving GSB’s image — by improving its relationship with the students and administration,” Flaherty said.

If elected Flaherty and Halliburton said they would hold student forums where students can express their views.

Flaherty said he has been disappointed with the student turnout at GSB Senate meetings. He said he has talked with students that attended GSB meetings and many were confused with the proceedings.

“The GSB as a whole has sheltered itself from the rest of Iowa State,” Flaherty said. “From being a staff member with the Daily for three semesters, it has made me more experienced with the students’ interests.”

If elected president and vice president, Flaherty and Halliburton said they would reform teacher evaluations, working jointly with the Faculty Senate.

“Teacher evaluations need to be made accessible to students prior to registering for their classes,” Flaherty said.

Flaherty and Halliburton said teacher evaluations could rate the courses as a whole and provide information about instructors and the average grades they handed out, among other things.

They said they would also like to bring back the service that let students charge their books to their university bills. “We’d like to get a system where students can choose charging at the UBS and the Campus Book Store,” Flaherty said.

A charging plan would enable students to buy their books when they need them rather than waiting for money from home or financial aid, Flaherty said.

Flaherty said to keep students from getting into deep debt with the charge program, he would like to restrict charging to only school supplies such as textbooks and computer software, with a maximum $300 credit limit.

Flaherty and Halliburton also said a student-run book exchange with a Web site to assist students trading, selling and buying books would be helpful.

Campus safety is another concern for Flaherty and Halliburton, they said. “We would like to increase safety on campus by having better lighting on campus and more emergency telephones,” Flaherty said.

“I feel that we have an open focus,” Halliburton added. “We can’t narrow ourselves into our platforms and get stuck on those issues.”

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Where They Stand: Flaherty & Halliburton

Rory Flaherty is a junior in construction engineering from Le Mars. Jeff Halliburton is a junior in anthropology from Ames.

* Public Relations

– Initiate a student-focused agenda

– Hold student forums to provide a comfortable climate for discussion

* Teacher Evaluations

– Rate the course and instructor

– Make evaluations available to students

* Books

– Reestablish the charge system at the University Book Store and the Campus Book Store

– Set up a student-run book exchange site on the Web

* Campus Safety

– Installation of better lighting and more emergency phones on campus