Government of the Student Body finance officials will begin an investigation of the Iowa State Daily today, looking into possible infractions of funding regulations.

The senate voted Wednesday night in favor of the investigation after Jeremy Peterson, business, said the Daily distributed two posters advertising position openings last April that did not have “Funded by GSB” printed on them.

According to the GSB bylaws, any student organization that receives student-fee generated money through GSB is required to include acknowledgment of the funding on all printed and electronic materials circulated outside the organization.

The Daily was slated to receive $89,000, but its funding could be affected by the findings of the investigation, said Alex Olson, vice chairman of the GSB Finance Committee.

“If we find that the Daily was not forthcoming or not following our rules . we have been ordered to recommend a decrease,” Olson said. “The size of the decrease would be correlated to how bad it was.”

Steve Medanic, GSB finance director, will meet with Daily personnel today to determine the extent of any possible infractions.

The posters without “Funded by GSB” on them were posted nearly a year ago, before the Daily was aware of the policy, said Carrie Tett, editor in chief of the Daily.

Peterson said a student showed him the poster, and he notified Medanic, who sent a letter dated April 19, 2000, to the Daily advising the new editor of the change in policy.

Former GSB Finance Director Jeremy Williams said GSB buys subscriptions with the student-fee money, and he did not enforce the policy on the student newspaper because it is a special case.

“The Daily is different,” said Williams, a recent ISU graduate who served as finance director from 1997 to 2000. “GSB buys subscriptions from the Daily on behalf of the students. The current GSB senate and finance committee needs to realize that and then apply the rules accordingly.”

GSB voted to cut Veishea’s funding last year because of a similar infraction, and Peterson said groups are all expected to follow the same funding rules.

“All I wanted to do is keep the precedent that we had set,” he said. “It wasn’t my intent to zero fund or freeze their account. I just wanted to send it back to the finance committee to see if this was like Veishea and warranted a decrease.”

Tett, senior in journalism and mass communication, said the Daily staff was not aware their funding may be in jeopardy until a few days before Wednesday’s senate meeting. Since the Daily staff was notified in April of the change in GSB funding policy, Tett said, the Daily has abided by the regulation.

“It was like a bomb was dropped on us,” she said. “If we weren’t meeting the criteria of the new policy imposed on us, we were never informed about that.”

Since the posters were distributed before the April 19 letter from Medanic, Tett said, she does not see a reason for GSB to penalize the Daily.

The finance committee will reconvene Saturday to discuss the findings of the investigation and make a new recommendation for the Daily’s funding, Olson said.

“Assuming the Daily has done nothing wrong beyond what Carrie has already admitted to, we will almost for sure send back to the senate the exact same recommendation [for $89,000],” he said. “The word investigation has a negative connotation, but this is just to figure out what the facts are.”