Student Government voted Wednesday night to clarify the language and policies on free speech, the free-speech zones on campus and on creating a university-based student trade site.

A bill advocating free speech on campus was passed by the Senate with a vote of 33-2.

This bill initially was meant to expand the free-speech zones on campus, but was revised after a discussion from the senators.

Sen. Cole Staudt, an author of the bill, then proposed an amendment that would strike the resolutions to expand the free-speech zone. The amendment was passed unanimously by the senators.

The bill was meant to create another zone — meant solely for ISU students, faculty and staff — on the grassy interior area of Central Campus north of the Campanile. However, these groups will not be allowed within 100 feet of a campus building or impede foot traffic in that area.

Instead, with Staudt’s amendment, the bill was worded to encourage the administration to create more clear and concise language on university policies.

“We will be expanding free speech by clarifying the free-speech zones,” Staudt said.

Before discussion on the senate floor, University Counsel Paul Tanaka spoke to the Senate about the issue.

Tanaka told the senators to consider what issues they are trying to solve and expressed his own concerns for the bill.

“If we’re trying to protect people from what they call ‘offensive speech,’ that is concerning to me,” Tanaka said. “We are trying to foster interaction and this town square culture. It’s concerning when we try to shut that out.”

He spoke to the senators about the First Amendment, and how Iowa State encourages the freedom of speech on campus.

“As a government agency, we have to protect the First Amendment’s function,” Tanaka said. “But it is not our function to overreach in the marketplace of ideas.”

Tanaka said the university, in this marketplace of ideas, is trying to foster interactions on tough issues.

“We have an obligation to try to foster those dialogues, even if it makes people uncomfortable,” he said.

Student Government Senate discussed and voted down a bill by a vote of 22-10 to fund ITS CySwap an overall allocation of $20,300.

ITS CySwap will be an Information Technology Services website that President Dan Breitbarth compared to Craigslist. The project is meant to build a platform that would act as a trade site between students to sell and buy goods such as textbooks, tickets, furniture and more.

Breitbarth said this website would be a common place for students to access that is run for the university and does not have the risks that Facebook pages such as ISU Ticket Trader has.

Several senators expressed concern about ITS CySwap, particularly about the cost and the lack of guaranteed success of the project.

However, Sen. Michael Snook argued that there was a benefit to have a formal system besides Facebook and that it was a good use of the funds.

Sen. Danielle Nygard proposed an amendment to the bill, which passed after a unanimous vote, that would require Student Government to draw up a contract with ITS for a minimum of two years and a maximum of five.

Nygard said this would allow for the website to receive a sort of trial run, in order to study its effectiveness over the allotted time.

Sen. George Weston said he planned to vote no. Because of the suddenness of the bill, he said senators do not have time to speak to the constituents about the website.

Sen. Ryan Starn encouraged senators not to vote in favor of the bill because he said there was not enough information available to the Senate and there were other sites such as Amazon that students would rather use for selling textbooks.

Senators also passed a bill 26 to 10 that would fund $11,200 to an umbrella renting system at Iowa State. The system would allow students to check out umbrellas for free as needed.

Student Government hopes to enter an agreement with ’brellaBox, a company based out of New York City that has an umbrella rental system installed throughout the city. These same systems would be installed on campus and have 200 umbrellas for student use.

Several senators expressed concern for the cost of the project.

“I think this bill has a lot of good intent behind it, but for the given costs, I don’t think the benefits outweigh the costs,” said Sen. Cole Button.

Some senators pointed out that Student Government is meant to help students, and this is a project that could do that.

“We’re here to help students,” said Sen. Brittany Gaura. “If an umbrella helps a student, then it helps a student.”

Mickey Sundermann, director of communications for Student Government, pointed out that the Senate needed to pass more bills such as this project to help students.

“Students say we don’t do anything with them, and we don’t because we don’t take opportunities like this to help them,” she said.

The Senate also voted unanimously to pass a bill that supports the changing of parking restrictions in Campustown.

Currently, parking is prohibited on certain roads in Campustown from 3 to 6 a.m. This bill supports the revision of these restrictions to allow parking during this time on Friday, Saturday and Sunday on Storm Street and Lincoln Way, on Chamberlain Street between Hayward Avenue and Lynn Avenue and on Lincoln Way between Hayward Avenue and Lynn Avenue.

The hope of this resolution is to encourage safe drinking practices, the bill states, and allowing parking on weekends can prevent impaired driving.

The senators also unanimously approved a bylaw that expanded the Election Commission, the body in charge of Student Government elections, from 10 members to 12.