The Government of the Student Body Rules Committee is investigating the finance committee after a senator commented on the finance committee’s analysis of the ISU men’s hockey club.

The finance committee has been working with the hockey team since the end of August to stabilize the club’s finances after the team ended the last fiscal year about $71,000 in debt. Recent meetings with the team members have been conducted in closed executive session.

Alex Olson, vice chairman of the finance committee, said Pat Kuehn, off-campus senator, relayed details about a conversation he had with a hockey team member, breaking a gag order in senate session.

Rules committee member Greg Tew, vice speaker of the senate, said there have been questions raised about the gag order that is placed on executive session meetings.

“A comment was made on the senate floor by a certain senator that concerned issues that had been discussed in executive session,” he said. “We had no choice but to look into it.”

Tew said the rules committee is not investigating specific actions the finance committee has taken, but rules committee members are looking to see if the hockey investigation is being run appropriately.

Olson said the rules committee is not conducting a full investigation of everything they have done with the hockey team.

“This investigation was brought about by the remarks of one senator on the senate floor,” Olson said. “We are fully cooperating with whatever the rules committee asks of us.”

Finance Director Steve Medanic said the rules committee investigation is not due to any major violations made by the finance committee, and he said he does not expect the investigation to have serious repercussions.

Mike Owen, faculty adviser to the hockey club, said mechanical failures contributed to the team’s debt. He said six home games were canceled during the 1998-1999 season when the ice arena went down, and the team lost the revenue those games would have generated.

“The hockey team actually made money last year, but the missed games from the previous year caused us to stay in debt,” said Owen, professor of agronomy. “Hopefully, the construction of the new ice arena will end this problem.”

In addition, Owen said the hockey team has been working very closely with the finance committee and that the budget is looking good.

“We’re moving forward with this in a positive attitude,” he said. “This is a debt that we have to deal with, and the players are doing everything that they can do to get past this.”