The Government of the Student Body examined issues such as alcohol, recycling and effective student government at the Conference of Conferences in Boulder, Colo., last weekend.

In a presentation at Wednesday night’s GSB meeting, senators discussed highlights of the conference.

A total of 12 representatives from Iowa State attended the conference, including representatives from GSB and the Inter-Residence Hall Association.

Rob Wiese, president of GSB, attended an alcohol summit for the entire community sponsored by the University of Colorado and the city of Boulder.

The community-wide summit is the fifth such meeting in two years in Boulder, Wiese said.

One of the major ideas of the summit was a reduction in the legal drinking age, Wiese said.

“The community as a whole agreed 21 was too high,” Wiese said.

The citizens of Colorado discussed lowering the drinking age to 18, and requiring people from 18 to 21 to purchase a “license” to drink, Wiese said. These fees would help compensate the loss of federal highway funding that would be lost by lowering the drinking age.

Wiese said the university also was struggling with alcohol awareness programs.

To help with this problem, Wiese said he encouraged the idea of a community-wide discussion on alcohol.

“It was really neat to see a community actually working together on this issue,” Wiese said.

Matt Ostanik, design, also supported the idea of a community alcohol summit.

“I think we should get the community together every year and talk about alcohol regardless of what happens with Veishea,” Ostanik said. “This is something we need to deal with as a whole.”

GSB representatives also brought back recycling ideas from the conference.

Matt Craft, RCA, said he was impressed by the recycling efforts at U of C.

“Their idea is the more convenient [recycling] is, the more participation you get,” Craft said.

Craft described a thermal mug program, where students can get discounts at restaurants in the student union and Campustown by purchasing and using the $1 mug.

Affirmative action was another issue that was discussed at the Conference of Conferences.

Yasmin Blackburn, off-campus, said the presenter at the conference addressed myths about affirmative action, such as it is a black versus white issue.

“The group that has benefited most from affirmative action is white women,” Blackburn said.

She said U of C is working to make sure that Proposition 209 to end affirmative action does not go through.

“[Proposition 209] hurts the people in the school because they don’t have the diversity,” Blackburn said.

With recent discussion and the changing of constitution bylaws concerning religious funding, GSB representative brought back new ideas from the conference about student fees.

Mike Pogge, LAS, represented ISU at the student fees meeting.

Pogge said U of C has a great deal of control over their student fees, a portion of which funds the recreation center, student health, union and legal services.

“It was very interesting to see that we don’t control as much while other universities have trusted [the student government] to create quality programs,” Pogge said.

Pogge also discussed other schools which have faced the decision to change funding procedures to religious groups.

The University of Washington and ISU were the only two schools who have dealt with the Rosenberg v. Rector and Visitors of University of Virginia case, which states that student government may fund religious groups.

Pogge said most schools have decided to wait until they are sued before changing their funding procedures.

Ostanik said he felt the conference was a good experience.

“It gave us a really good chance to discuss things with schools that are facing similar problems,” Ostanik said.

In other news

• The Student Health Insurance Committee needs two student members. Interested students can contact the GSB office.