A bill was passed allotting $1,500 to the purchase of a new Web server at Thursday’s Inter-Residence Hall Association meeting.

“I think this is a wonderful opportunity for students,” said Brian Macomber, director of information technology. “There are some stability problems [with the current server] that will be fixed by this and there are a lot of services we can offer residence hall students.”

One such service would be used to allow residence hall houses to post their Web sites, Macomber said. He also mentioned the possibility of allowing ISUTalk, a chat forum for students, to run off the server.

“The potential for expansion is huge,” said Tony Luken, Government of the Student Body Speaker of the Senate, who was substituting for the IRHA Treasurer, Colleen Prosser.

Some members questioned the amount of money being spent.

“I don’t think we need a system this nice,” said Dave Breutzmann, Towers Residence Association president. “I like it when parliament is better informed, especially when it’s spending money.”

Macomber said there were benefits to investing a lot of money into the server.

“I’m not looking at what’s cheap,” he said. “I’d rather spend a couple extra hundred dollars and get a computer with a longer life for IRHA.”

Luken said money was not an issue.

“If you’re going to get something, make it last,” he said. “I think it’s a great investment.”

Three bills were also passed which changed several position titles, changed summer requirements of the president and vice president and removed the IRHA executive member from radio station KURE’s board, since the station will not be funded by IRHA beginning July 1, 2003.

Breutzmann said the changes in the bills were fairly minor.

“It’s a lot of easy fixes,” he said.

In other IRHA business, President Keith Twombley reported on the results of the voter registration drive.

“About 500 people got registered to vote thanks to IRHA,” he said. “That’s something you can be proud of.”

Nick Leitheises, Richardson Court Association at-large, asked members to continue to encourage their constituents to vote.

“It’s great that we have 500 people registered to vote, but if we don’t have 500 people vote, it’s all for naught,” he said.