Richard Reynolds, director of the Memorial Union, with Gail Ferlazzo, associate director of the Memorial Union, introduced an idea to modify hours of access to the Memorial Union at the Government of the Student Body meeting Wednesday night.

The Union has lost some staff who typically act as a security force, Reynolds said.

“This is a 245,000 square-foot building with a lot of dark corners, and what I call the maze on the third floor,” Reynolds said.

Another factor Reynolds said is being taken into consideration is that the utility bill is expected to go up another $240,000, which will put the total bill past the million-dollar mark.

Numbers brought together from Memorial Union staff suggest that 8,967 groups used the Union in a one-year period, and only 12 of those meetings lasted until after midnight.

The first draft of the bill reads that the north stair tower door, from the MU parking garage, will remain open 24 hours a day, and the west entrance near the M-Shop will be open until 2:30 a.m.

The south entrance, the three terrace entrances and the Gold Star Hall entrance would all lock at midnight.

“You would be able to leave the Memorial Union; you just wouldn’t be able to get back in,” Ferlazzo said.

The third-floor lobby, main lounge, Pride Lounge, east lounge and hotel lobby would still be open 24 hours a day.

From dead week through Friday morning of finals week, the west entrance and Gold Star Hall entrances would be open 24 hours a day, as would the Commons, Pine Room and Trophy Room to better accommodate students.

If the new hours are put into effect, they will begin Jan. 4.

Penny Rice, director of the Sloss House, yielded questions from the senate about the $29,886.99 the Sloss House was allocated.

The Sloss House currently has hardwood floors from the 1970s, striped carpeting in the dining room and Sun Room, orange carpeting on the stairs and a presumably beige carpeting in the offices, none of which can be washed because industrial-sized cleaning machines can’t get into the house, Rice said.

Rice said the GSB money will go more toward furniture, whereas the Provost’s Office, which will be matching the donation, will pay for new flooring.

Rice also said that while this is being done, the Sloss House will need to be vacated. They have not decided where residents will go during that time.

Chelsea Zigtema, junior in sociology and Pan-Hellenic Council senator, presented to the senate results of a survey sent out by GSB.

They received 2,641 responses in one week.

Of the sample group, 81 percent of students were unaware of who their senator is, 67 percent of students did not know who their president or vice president are, and 59 percent of the participants did not vote in the last GSB election.

Zigtema said at least 50 students who left comments to this survey had only heard of GSB through that particular e-mail.

The senate then discussed what it could do to make the student body more aware of its presence.

The survey found that students would like to see a movie theater in Campustown and would not like to see another bar, Zigtema said.

Tom Danielson, senior in civil engineering and GSB financial director, gave a presentation explaining what a bill titled “Changing and Upgrading the GSB Financial Policy” will change.

The bill, which the senate passed, created a new events account and deleted the student appreciation account.

The events account will have a cap of $50,000, and the funds will be utilized the same way as the student appreciation account. It will just be more inclusive, Danielson said.

The $50,000 will come from money GSB collects after groups do not use, or misspend, the money they were allocated. President Jon Turk, senior in political science, expressed his concerns about the bill during his comments from the executive branch.

Turk said the senate should be working on limiting how much money it is getting back from groups.

Groups that receive funding from colleges would be able to access this money as long as they do not have a mission directed toward a particular academic program, according to the new bylaws.

Mark Lenhardt, off-campus senator and junior in political science, was voted to take over the chair of the Student Debt Committee as Sen. Jacob Johnston, senior in management, will leave this semester.

Graham Jordison, president of ActivUs and senior in political science, spoke on behalf of a bill written by Sen. Brian Guillaume, junior in political science, that urges President Barack Obama to attend the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit.

The last time there was a meeting of this type was in 1997, and the United States was the only country at the meeting that did not sign the Kyoto Protocol, Jordison said.

Copies of the resolution will be sent to Obama, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Council of Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Tom Harkin, Rep. Tom Latham, and ISU President Gregory Geoffroy.