Before going in front of the Senate, the Student Government Rules Committee voted to table the bill that considers the termination of the Iowa State Daily’s financial contract. 

The Rules Committee met Tuesday evening to discuss whether Bill 2022-3-039 SO should be on the agenda for Wednesday’s Student Government meeting.

While committee members shared different views on the topic, holding the bill allowed Student Government and the Iowa State Daily more time to discuss potential amendments to the contract.

Vice Speaker of the Senate, Advait M., a senior in mechanical engineering, computer science and political science, introduced the bill to the Senate on March 23. He said tabling it would allow the Iowa State Daily to gather representatives for the Student Government meeting.

“I would say, my best course of action would be to perhaps table it [the bill], and allow conversations to happen, to allow negotiation to continue to happen,” said Senator Eddie Mahoney, a senior in computer science.

Student Government Finance Director Mason Zastrow, a senior in political science, said the bill should be tabled indefinitely. He presented a statement he and Student Government President Julia Campbell and Vice President Megan Decker wrote, stating the bill is unripe for a vote.

“The Daily, just like Student Government, is a large organization with procedures and objectives of their own,” the statement read. “Because of the valuable product they produce, it is in Student Government’s best interest to respect these procedures and objectives.” 

Zastrow highlighted the existing contract allows for both parties to make amendments as needed and said at the least, the bill should be tabled for one week.

“The point of the statement we put out is that the discussions that we’ve had with the Daily in private have kind of contradicted the process this bill has been going through, meaning that it’s not ready or prepared right now,” Zastrow said.

Advait opposed the idea of tabling the bill indefinitely. According to him, this conversation has been ongoing for many years but has produced no results.

“If we don’t set a timeline, things will keep going the way they have been going on,” said Advait.

The bill will hit the Senate floor during the April 6 meeting at the Memorial Union starting at 6 p.m.

“We should be going in with the understanding that we are going to have a substantive conversation, and we should all bring our best arguments,” said Advait about the upcoming meeting.