The Government of the Student Body discussed funding the Student Loan Education Office and the Iowa State Daily during Wednesday night’s senate meeting.

A bill to fund the Student Loan Education Office with $116,821.87 was passed by GSB, but senators initially debated funding only half of the initial amount at this point. The office would provide one-on-one student loan counseling. 

The more than $116,000 will be put toward paying the salaries of professionals in the office.

The Finance Committee for GSB created an amendment that would fund the Student Loan Education Office a little more than $58,000 initially. They said they do not yet know the amount of students who will take advantage of the office, and therefore, they do not know how many faculty members the office will require.

Multiple senators said GSB should fund the bill completely or not at all. However, others said the administration would commit the other funding to make up for what GSB may not fund at this point.

Hillary Kletscher, GSB president, said she wanted to see the senators fund the bill in full. In her experience, she said she has heard the majority of ISU students’ concerns about their own student debt and how they don’t know how their student loans are structured.

“It’s such a real issue. This is something that affects our students in such a real way. To me, I think we should absolutely fund it in the full amount. We want to help them get the most services possible,” Kletscher said. “There are very few things that students get excited about.”

ISU students graduate with an average of $30,000 in debt, among the highest of students in Iowa. On average, Iowa students have the sixth largest debt in the nation.

“62 out of every 100 students graduate with student debt. Just imagine the number of students we would help by funding this,” said Abhijit Patwa, finance director.

While some senators did not understand the need to fund the full bill at this time, Patwa said the university is not required by law to create any office like the Student Loan Education Office and GSB should stand up for students’ needs.

The GSB also voted to approve funding the Iowa State Daily an additional $30,000 to the already-funded $110,000 for the 2014-2015 academic year.

Senators debated on whether or not the Iowa State Daily needed an additional $30,000 and if they were serving students’ needs in the best way.

Some senators said they had talked to many students who said the Iowa State Daily had not been meeting their needs or printing stories that students wanted to read. One senator also said that though the student newspaper has a tradition of serving students for 125 years, traditions can be changed. Another publication may take the Daily’s place if it ceases to exist, they said.

Other senators said a student newspaper provides the news that students do not already know about, the news that they want and need to hear and that it keeps the campus connected.

Lawrence Cunningham, general manager for the Iowa State Daily, told GSB that the additional $30,000 in funding is necessary because of the changing platforms for journalism. The Daily is now structuring news to be on multiple platforms: print, web and mobile app that are updated 24 hours a day.

Within three years, Cunningham said the Daily plans to fix deficient sales caused in part by a lawsuit with the Ames Tribune in the 1990s. The lawsuit declared the Daily as unfair competition and required distribution to stay within the parts of Ames that are concentrated with students. Because of this inability to distribute throughout the city, advertising becomes less appealing to businesses.

Cunningham said the money would help fund the multiple platforms that are being created. He also said the Daily understands that it has not served readers as it well as it should have in the past.

The $30,000 contract with GSB includes performance metrics. The Daily receives a certain amount of money if it meets each different requirement in the contract. Metrics include reader satisfaction polls, mandatory training, consistent coverage and obtained revenue goals.

GSB also funded student groups Up ’till Dawn and the Puerto Rican Students Association for upcoming events.