Several student leaders will travel to Austin, Texas, today to represent Iowa State at the annual Big 12 Student Government Conference Nov. 4-8.

The conference, hosted this year by University of Texas, is held annually at a Big 12 Conference school.

This year, ISU student representatives are hoping their bid will bring next fall’s conference to Ames.

“We’re going to make a computer presentation to sell Iowa State and Ames to the conference,” said Matt Craft, GSB president. “It will highlight our goals and what we want to see done at the conference. We’ll see how much competition we have.”

Hosting the conference is a good chance to show what ISU has to offer, he said. “I don’t think the people from the Texas schools make it up here to Ames, Iowa, very often.”

The conference gives student leaders an opportunity to share ideas about their activities on campus.

“It is a chance to share what works and what doesn’t,” Craft said. “Almost all the people going are cabinet members or senators.”

Electronic voting is a prime focus area for ISU representatives this year, Craft said. GSB currently is considering two bills to implement electronic voting over the Internet to increase participation in elections.

“We know other schools have electronic voting,” he said. “We want to find out the good things, the problems and the results they have had.”

The interaction among student leaders prompts an exchange of ideas that leads to campus improvements, said Michel Pogge, off campus.

“I’ve always enjoyed talking to people from other schools to find out what they’re doing to improve their campus,” he said. “You can’t know everything. Brainstorming brings out other ideas.”

“Meet Your Government Day,” which made its debut at ISU this fall, is an example of the conference’s influence on the ISU campus.

The idea for an event in which students can meet their student representatives sprung from the conference two years ago in Boulder, Colo.

Pogge said he hopes students this year will bring similar ideas for improvements on campus, as well as valuable, firsthand information about electronic voting.

“We should get some good ideas from other schools,” he said. “We have a lot of good people going who will be around for a while. It will be a good experience.”