Iowa State Daily

The new school year has begun and that means buying books, avoiding wandering freshmen and hoping that this is the year the Cyclones finally beat the Hawkeyes. It also means the beginning of a new year of student government.

The Government of the Student Body begins the new year with its first meeting tonight at 7 p.m. in the Gallery at Memorial Union.

The first bill of the fall involves the possible seating of Todd Swanson, interim director of financial affairs, as the full-time director for the 1996-97 term.

The Director of Financial Affairs performs duties that are very important to the students at Iowa State, said Dan Etler, GSB chief of staff. The director is in charge of the finance committee, arguably the most important committee on the GSB, he said. He decides what recommendations to give the senate about what to do with the $1.2 million allocated for student funds.

“The duties of this committee is kind of the fundamental thing that the GSB does,” Etler said.

Swanson has experience on the GSB and served on the finance committee last year.

“I was on the finance committee last year and over the summer I had to complete the budget for last year and complete some planning for the fall of ’96,” Swanson said.

The bill reads that Swanson has performed his duties as interim director in “an outstanding manner.”

Etler explained what was meant by this.

“The actual bookkeeping was a real disaster last year. He had to go through and find out what the finance committee had approved last year, because that wasn’t very clear. The books were really in bad shape when he took over,” Etler said.

Although it is GSB business-as-usual to seat the finance director in the fall, a motion to seat David Schoopf during the final spring meeting was withdrawn by Senator John Hamilton after much debate.