State of the Student Body (3-11)
Presented by Daniel Fischer, President to the Government of the Student Body Senate

As we wind down the last month of our current responsibilities serving on the Government of the Student Body, we have plenty of reasons to be proud, many people to thank, and large reasons to be hopeful for the future of the organization. We also stand at a point in time in which we have the ability to make significant accomplishments in both the upcoming months and upcoming years.

This term, focusing on student debt was clearly GSB’s focus. Three major efforts helped display our organization’s great influence both inside and outside of Iowa State University. The Financial Literacy Campaign was truly an all-GSB effort with plenty of collaboration between the Executive and Legislative branches. Information was spread all throughout campus and on an easy to access website. The campaign and the general issue of student debt even gained the attention of Central Iowa through local news coverage. The second accomplishment is due to the strong efforts of our Vice President and the support of Senate through an important resolution. Recently, Doug Borkowski informed Vice President Luttrell and me that an online one-credit class on Financial Literacy is now in development and will be offered soon. This will greatly serve students for years to come. Thirdly, ISU Ambassadors has continued to lobby regularly for both the textbook tax exemption, which is now written as a bill in both chambers of the Iowa legislature, and healthy appropriations for the university. Each of these actions has laid a strong foundation for continuing to address the student debt issue in the future.

Additionally, the Government of the Student Body has always positioned itself to offer services and help improve conditions to areas on campus that students use. GSB was able to finish projects that had been started, restore faulty resources, and other useful ideas are currently being discussed. Three important projects clearly stand out, with two having already been pushed through our system. All of you showed true leadership by stepping in and finishing the funding of the Memorial Union sign after GSB originally contributed a great sum two years ago. The Iowa State community will visibly see a display of the strength of Iowa State’s vibrant student organizations. RideShare was a service that originally gained attention of Iowa State’s admissions, news service, and most importantly, students. GSB will once again be offering this valuable service soon. Now in the next month, you all will be presented with the opportunity to offer another service from GSB. For years, our organization has struggled to find ways to get involvement and feedback from our Off-Campus and Campustown students. Great progress has been made in the last year, but it is time to develop a signature service for these students through an off-campus housing website that already exists at the other regent institutions. There will be concerns about the price tag of this service, but this will be a prudent investment for the student body, as it will have lasting benefits for a population that makes up nearly half the campus for years to come.

Throughout the year, we have heard many concerns about the price tag of many other projects. The perpetual arguments have been “we have so much money, so we need to do something,” or the just the opposite: “Just because we have money doesn’t need we need to spend it on something that is wasteful.” Frankly, both sides are right, but being right won’t solve any of the issues that are relevant, such as the large sum of money that has accumulated in GSB accounts. We have three real options to solve this argument. First, I am happy to hear that the Finance Director Danielson and the Finance Committee is actively advertising carry-over funds to student organizations, as recaptured funds is a primary reason we have built this gigantic surplus. Allowing student organizations more carry-over funds through proper communication will need to be a part of this solution, and we are moving in the right direction under the leadership of Finance Director Danielson. The second option is for all of us to find more worthwhile capitol projects for the campus. Many members of the Senate and Executive Branch have been doing a great job exploring possible ideas, and the number of large projects has certainly increased throughout the year. We need to make sure the future leaders understand this duty from day one. The third possibility would be for our leadership to freeze any activity fee increases and use some of the investment or capitol funds to make up the difference. These should be seriously considered in the future, and this year, the activity fee increased at a rate lower than inflation. I am confident that the future leadership of GSB will properly steward the money that students control.

Our university will be in an interesting economic situation in the near-future. Decisions such as cutting student services and even academic programs will likely be made in the near future. It will be important that the representatives and leaders on the Government of the Student have good information and diverse experiences throughout campus involvements. Luckily, terrific relationships exist with administrators, enrollment numbers are healthy at Iowa State, and the overwhelming majority of students are very satisfied with their experience at Iowa State. There will always be challenges at a university and within a student government, but the future will be bright.
Thank you.

Executive Announcements
March 11, 2009

Ride Share Recommendations: Thank you to the GSB Senate for the generous allocation of $6,000 for the rebuilding of RideShare. I will take account of all comments made at last week’s Senate meeting, and I plan to discuss the possible concerns of the system with Cabinet and the University Affairs Committee this week. Based on all of these recommendations, a formal statement of needs will be written for Information Technology Systems.

Open Associate Justice Positions: Due to the fact that Off-Campus Government has voted to put a similar statute in their own governing documents as the piece of legislation that was vetoed, I have decided to not take any corresponding action if this veto is overridden tonight. As this matter will be resolved very soon, applications are now available for two Associate Justice positions. Applications will be posted to our website by tomorrow. Please contact Corey Becker at coreyb@iastate.edu.

Board of Regents Meeting: The Board of Regents will be meeting during spring break in Iowa City on March 18 and 19. I plan on attending, and would welcome any feedback or information that anyone would like to communicate to the Regents.

Campustown Meeting: On Monday, March 23, the City of Ames and Iowa State administrations will be conducting a meeting about possible Campustown strategies for improvement in the future. This meeting will be held in the Gallery of the Union. You should have all received an e-mail with the information, and all of you are strongly encouraged to attend this event, as it is a perpetual GSB issue.

Office Allocation Requests: This past week, President-elect Turk and I met with the Student Union Board to discuss our available offices for next year. We have requested to keep possession of Office C, and will learn the final results in early April.

Police Ride-Alongs: Ride-alongs have begun with the City of Ames police. For those that signed up, you should be contacted soon with a time to meet. Many other organizations are also participating, so the rides will be spread out through the remaining months of classes.

I wanted to throw a quick “THANK YOU” out to the Finance

Committee and all of the student groups that have been involved in the Regular Allocations Process this spring. It can definitely be a grueling process. However, the fact that our Government of the Student Body ultimately has a say in allocating 1.1 million dollars of student fee money is nothing shy of amazing.

Throughout the last month, the finance committee has dedicated over 20 hours just in committee meetings plus the countless hours dedicated to outside work just to help student groups on campus. So PROPS to them!

(Finance Committee: Albaugh, Peterson, Finnegan, Fischer, Huser, Pingar, Al-Hassan, Loan, Venema, Danielson)

The last meeting is tonight, from 5-?? in room 2210 at the Memorial Union. If the meeting needs to go last midnight, it will be moved to 1580H in the West SOS. However, for those computer nuts, you can actually watch the action live from any computer with internet access.  The results of the hearings will be updated as they happen at www.sodb.stuorg.iastate.edu/ofp2.  Once you’re at the website, click on GSB Regular Allocations FY2010 and search for any budget you would like.  For Sports Clubs, you need to click on SCC Regular Allocations FY2010 at the main screen.

The new budgets will be ready for first read this upcoming Wednesday, March 11^th at the Senate meeting (7pm Campanile Room at the MU). Second read will be after Spring Break and Senate will have the opportunity to pull groups out individually to change any budgets they see fit.

So…with that, I’d like to say thanks to all of those on the Finance Committee that have taken the time to get these budgets ready for Senate!

WOOT WOOT!

Executive Announcements
March 4, 2009

Veto Discussion: As you have become aware, I vetoed Senate Bill 73-Y on February 27. To answer some of the Rules Committee’s concerns, I really did not consider the legality of the decisions until after the bill had been voted upon. I apologize for not doing so and creating another situation of debate. Although I did have some concerns with the necessity or the practicality of the decision, I would have signed the bill into law if I did not think there were issues with it properly following our Constitution and Bylaws. I am aware that many disagree with my interpretation of the legality of 73-Y, but I still have the opinion that our recognized constituency councils’ are responsible for how they would like to represent their students. I did list many other practical reasons that were discussed last Wednesday, but those are irrelevant from my point of view, as the vote was lopsided based on those issues.

Open Associate Justice Positions: One associate justice recently left the university, and another has resigned in the past week. As there is a possible upcoming case regarding the legality of the vetoed legislation, Speaker Turk and I have made an agreement that no new associate justices will be appointed until after everything is decided to prevent any conflict of interest and undue influence. The quorum for the Supreme Court is six members.

Education Subcommittee Meeting: Director of ISU Ambassadors Alyssa Staley, Ambassadors member Jessica Bruning, and I traveled down to the State Capitol to meet with State legislators about the textbook tax exemption proposal. Last year, Iowa State students claimed 11 percent of a possible $567,100 worth of rebates. University of Iowa students claimed $180 of a possible $488,145 of rebates, and the University of Northern Iowa does not have a university-sponsored bookstore. The total estimated cost to expand this program at the University of Northern Iowa and to private bookstores would be over $3 Million dollars. This will be a difficult proposal to swing in a tough budget year, but Senator Quirmbach instructed students that if they claim a greater number of rebates, creating this legislation would represent a smaller reduction to state revenue. Also, he pledged to propose this every year until it passes.

Obama’s Education Plan: Last Thursday, President Barack Obama unveiled his proposal to make college education more affordable. His ideas included increasing the funding of Pell Grants by 75 percent throughout the next decade and cutting partnerships with private loan companies and replacing these with direct federal loans. The recent stimulus bill increased the size of Pell Grants from $4,731 currently to $5,550 next year.

Washington D.C. Trip: In addition to the GSB members that will be lobbying for higher education programs as part of Big 12 on the Hill, I will be attending the North American Interfraternity Conference to lobby in support of the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act on behalf of the Greek community.

GO VOTE YO!.

www.vote.iastate.edu

Holy wow, now is the time for voting!  You should vote now and come back and leave a comment saying you did!  Cause then we’ll all think for a while that only 3 people voted!

www.vote.iastate.edu

GO VOTE!  YOUR CHOICE IS YOUR VOTE, OR SOMETHING!  GO VOTE!

Announcements

March 1, 2009

Off-Campus Government is a Constituency Council represented on the Government of the Student Body Senate. The number of Senate seats that Off-Campus Government (OCG) holds is 9, which is more than any other Constituency Council represented on the Government of the Student Body Senate. Traditionally OCG had limited membership of off campus students, however, this year membership has been opened up to all students; though only off campus living students can be nominated to fill open Off-Campus seats on the GSB Senate.

 Brief History

OCG over the decades has gone through periods of high involvement and times of minimal existence. In the 80’s OCG had high involvement as a funded student organization; that is until the sources of funding was cut off and OCG nearly stopped existing. Then in the 90’s, OCG centered its activities around the Landlord Tenant Liaison and was once again a highly popular organization that drew big crowds to the OCG meetings. In the late 90’s due to economic reasons the Landlord Tenant Liaison position was cut and OCG once again found itself in an almost non-existent state. That is, until this year.

This year

For the first semester of the 08-09 year, OCG has concentrated on reorganizing itself in order to once again rebuild the constituency with a strong foundation that will be able to serve off campus students for years to come. After looking through past records, we have done our best in rebuilding the constituency to avoid making the same mistakes that has lead to the collapse of OCG in previous decades. We are once again branching out into the community to address the issues that off campus students face, all we need now is the participation of the students of which we are here to serve. There are a lot of positions available as committees need more membership in order to have the man-power to get issues resolved quicker and be able to address more issues than we currently have the ability to handle. As more people become active in OCG, more leadership opportunities become available. Membership is open to all students, and for those who live off campus there are a couple of GSB senate seats still available in representing the off campus constituency.

Current Plans

Currently OCG is working on plans to increase communication between property managers and tenants. We are developing a proposal for a Landlord Tenant association so that issues can be directly discussed in an open meeting format that will resolve issues faster and create a better relationship between the tenants of Ames and their property managers. Furthermore, OCG is also working on developing plans for working with the various neighborhood associations throughout the City of Ames. By working with these neighborhood associations, problems and issues of different neighborhoods can be addressed sooner and provide more resources in addressing those issues to the betterment of everyone. In doing this, it is our intention to build a working relationship with the City of Ames in furthering the development of the “one community,” providing for more active participation throughout the City of Ames and lessoning the stress of off campus living.  OCG is also looking into starting talks with City Council about City Ordinances pertaining to rental properties and safe living conditions. As more people join OCG, more plans can be undertaken to address the issues and needs of off-campus students of Iowa State University.

Information

OCG can only obtain its maximum potential in being able to address the issues students have off-campus, if more students than the current level decide to get actively involved. For more information about the opportunities OCG has and how to get involved, contact OCG President and GSB Senator Jacob Johnston at jwj@iastate.edu.