As campus organizations prepare their budget requests for Government of the Student Body funds, the GSB senate approved the funding criteria for the 2000-2001 allocations.

Year after year, GSB doles out more than $1 million generated from student fees to campus organizations. The funding criteria are the guidelines by which the finance committee decides how much each group should receive.

Two changes concerning the way conferences are funded are noted in the newly adopted criteria. In particular, the criteria now include a ceiling limit on the total amount that can be spent for registration and transportation to and from each conference.

Jeremy Williams, GSB finance director, said the largest allocations made each year are for conferences, which benefit only a few group members. He said the finance committee members would like to see more money staying on campus.

In the proposed criteria, this maximum amount was set at $750. However, because conference registration alone tends to be expensive, an amendment was proposed to increase the cap to $1,000.

“It is a lot of money leaving campus,” said Michel Pogge, off campus. “I think $750 is somewhat of an arbitrary number. The funding criteria is flexible, and this number is simply a guideline. I think [$1,000] is a fair number.”

Christian Edmiston, graduate senator and vice chairman of finance, said a lower cap would encourage student groups to do more fund raising to pay for conferences.

“I am more concerned with the message it sends,” Edmiston said. “If we leave it at $750, groups will work hard to raise the money themselves.”

Edmiston added that a lower ceiling limit also would encourage groups to select valuable conferences in closer locations to keep costs down.

Ben Golding, engineering, cautioned his fellow senators not to underestimate the value of conferences.

“We are not looking at the whole picture,” Golding said. “The people who go to the conferences bring back ideas to the campus.”

The senate voted in favor of raising the conference maximum to $1,000 per conference.

In addition to the ceiling limit, the criteria now specify that only the group members receiving registration funds may receive additional money for transportation.

The criteria, which may undergo further clerical revision, were approved in time for the campus organizations to construct their budgets in preparation for the weekend hearings.

The hearings allow the organizations to present the budgets to the finance committee. They will begin Feb. 4 and run Fridays and Saturdays until Feb. 19. Budgets are due by 5 p.m. Jan. 31 in the GSB office.