The Government of the Student Body Finance Committee held a bill to fund a student’s admission to a conference.

After much debate, the senate upheld this decision at its meeting Wednesday night.

Student Union Board President Mike McCoy requested $300 to attend a conference. Under Finance Committee bylaws, however, McCoy is considered a pre-professional organization, which GSB does not help fund.

“He is a person, not an organization, but that doesn’t change anything,” said Tony Luken, speaker of the senate.

“Under current bylaws an organization can be defined as one person.”

Luken said the bylaws can be challenged in the future, but that was not the purpose of this meeting’s discussion.

“Every time any student fee money is requested, we should adhere to the rules,” said David Boike, finance director.

“This isn’t an issue about the money, it’s about the principle,” he said.

“It isn’t that the bylaws should be adhered to, they must be adhered to. Rules are a lot like ethics — they only matter when someone is inconvenienced.”

Boike said under the bylaws, funding must be for all students’ benefit and that one student’s conference fees will not benefit others.

McCoy, senior in animal science, said he is also majoring in political science and international studies. He said the major that will determine his career is political science.

“This does not have to do with anything pre-professional,” McCoy said. “It’s about Labrador retrievers, breeders and nutrition.”

McCoy said he is going to the conference purely out of personal, not academic, interest.

The Black Cultural Center received money to fund computers and Internet access at this meeting as well. The center is open to all students and should have extended hours after Thanksgiving break, said Bradford Johnson, president of the Black Student Alliance.

“It is almost a forgotten place,” Luken said. “It’s a great student hub.”

Also at the meeting, Susan Kane was seated as chief justice and Jay Smith was seated as an associate justice. These seating bills filled the final vacancies on the GSB Supreme Court.

A bill to extend conference funding for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally Alliance failed.

Boike said there is only $7,400 left in the discretionary fund. He said only $3,000 of this can be given out each semester for conference funding.

The LGBTAA had asked for $1,000.