The Government of the Student Body debated a bill to allocate $5,000 to the 20th Annual Big Eight Conference on Black Student Government at Wednesday night’s meeting.

BSG President Kyle Pierce said the $5000 will be used for printing, transportation and postage costs.

“No money will go for the career fair,” he said. It is against GSB bylaws to fund career fairs.

The conference will be held at Iowa State February 20-23, 1997. All schools in the Big Twelve Athletic Conference and 200 other schools are invited.

The conference is scheduled for anyone who wishes to register for its various workshops and is open to all students.

Some senators said the $5,000 funding level for the conference was too much.

“I’m concerned about giving $5,000 which will leave us with practically half of what we have now,” said Travis Keister, business senator.

Veronique Cantrell-Avloes, LAS senator, said that the senate had more than $13,000 left in the discretionary fund.

“The notion that $5,000 is half of the budget makes me wonder about our education system,” Cantrell-Avloes said.

Adam Obrecht, agriculture senator, said that some of his personal experiences with conferences makes him question the funding level.

“This doesn’t add up to as much as these numbers are reflecting,” Obrecht said.

Braden Lozan, Director of Student Information, said he was concerned that the details of the budget were not specific enough.

“If the exact numbers are given, there’s no problem. How possible is it to come back in a week with a more detailed budget?” Lozan said.

Yasmin Blackburn, off-campus senator, said senators have had every opportunity to ask questions about the bill in prior weeks.

“We gave everyone an opportunity to have input. So, no. We’re not submitting another budget,” Blackburn said.

Milton McGriff, non-traditional senator, said a previous GSB conference for a smaller number of students spent a lot more money than this one.

“This is one seventh of the amount of money we spent for 15 students…we’re talking about hosting 1,000 students.”

The senate voted 31 to 6 in favor of the bill. The next GSB meeting will be October 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the Gallery of the Memorial Union.