Overview
Student Fee Revenue
The Government of the Student Body receives its income from the mandatory student activity fee which is paid by all Iowa State University students. The overwhelming majority of this $1.7 million is spent to enhance student’s experiences at Iowa State University and specifically in student organizations. GSB also uses some of the money to provide debt assistance to student organizations, help student organizations to provide accommodations to disabled students, provide services specifically for graduate student organizations, and to depreciate current equipment to keep up with the technology standards of the future.
Account Allocations
Each year the Finance Director provides recommendations as to how to divide the student fee income across all of the GSB accounts. This includes recommendations on how much funding to provide for human services, for executive initiatives, for discretionary spending of the GSB Senate, and for the major GSB allocation cycles. You can find a copy of the most recent approved account allocations here and on the Documents page of our website.
Allocations to Student Organizations
One of the most important things that the Government of the Student Body does annually is providing funding to student organizations on campus. The two major allocation cycles total over $1.3 million in organization funding which does not include the requests made to the GSB Senate at their weekly meetings.
Regular Allocations
Through the Regular Allocations Process, the GSB Finance Committee meets face to face with over 140 student organizations every spring to discuss budget requests for the next fiscal year. These budgets are mostly made up of operating and annual expenses that ensure the financial stability of an organization from year to year. All budgets are delineated by line items to ensure the proper spending of every student fee dollar. This process alone accounts for almost 85% of the student fee spending every year.
Special Allocations
The Special Allocations process is very similar to the Regular Allocations process with the simple difference that this project takes place in the fall semester and allocates money for only the upcoming spring semester. This process usually allocates $20,000 and is for organizations that missed Regular Allocations or have had unforeseen expenses arise.
Senate Allocations
Each year the GSB Senate is also allocated money to spend at their discretion. This amount can vary from $21,000-$45,000 per year. Requests are made in bill form, drafted by a Senator and are reviewed by the Finance Committee before seeing the Senate floor. In addition to discretionary spending, the Senate also has jurisdiction over the Capital Projects Account. This account is for large expenditures, those that are intended to last at least three years, and those that provide a major benefit to ISU students. The last major discretion under control of the Senate is the Student Appreciation Account. Expenditures from this account are for events that are free and open to all students, and are entertaining in nature. Income to this account comes from interest earned on government investments.
Fee Recommendations
Each fall, the GSB President, Vice-President, Finance Director, and one Senator get together and come up with a recommendation for the amount of next year’s Student Activity Fee. These members then present this recommendation to the Special Student Fee and Tuition Committee, who takes their recommendation to the President of the University and eventually the Board of Regents
