One of the functions of the Government of the Student Body — usually one of its most mundane functions — is to determine how the funds in the Senate discretionary fund are used.

It’s fairly routine. Heated uproars, then, like the one at Wednesday’s GSB meeting, are rare.

Senators debated again Wednesday about a bill passed last week that allocated $5,000 to help fund the Big Eight Conference on Black Student Government. BSA members and many senators thought that was the end of it. After all, there was little debate.

They were wrong.

After a week to sit on it, some senators thought $5,000 was too much. Others wanted profits from the conference returned, if there were any. Senators John Hamilton, business, and Mark Nimmer, OCC, requested that the bill be reconsidered.

Then it began.

A heated debate spilled into the hall at the meeting. It continued yesterday.

“My intention would be to set a precedent with this, to find some sort of way for this and future bills to revert all profits back to the Senate discretionary. If we set a precedent we can then remain consistent,” Hamilton said.

Senator Adam Obrecht, agriculture, agreed.

“The idea was a collective one and Hamilton made the motion. He was one of the ones who came up with it, but other people came up with similar ideas,” Obrecht said. “My argument is still the same. It’s still a money issue and not a principles issue for me.”

Others have vastly different views, including Senator Veronique Cantrell-Avloes, LAS.

“The Senate has never done anything like this before. This is just something they cooked up for this group. They say it has nothing to do with this group, but with the principle. I think it has a lot to do with who the conference is for,” Cantrell-Avloes said.

Kyle Pierce, chairman of the Big Eight Conference on Black Student Government, said he had a meeting with GSB President Adam Gold. Pierce believes the idea to cut the funding came from Gold.

“He [Gold] said it’s too much for any one group to receive,” Pierce said. “The week before neither he or anyone else had anything to say, but later everyone had something to say about our funding. I have a strong suspicion that this is not a Senate-led reaction. I think this is coming from the top, Gold, all the way down.”

Gold said that’s simply not true. He said the Senate operates independent from him.

“I am in no way responsible for Senator Hamilton and Nimmer’s request. I do not think there was a place for this announcement and I have asked Nimmer to withdraw it,” he said. “It is disappointing to me that Kyle has made the assumption I am responsible for this.”

The issue of respect — or a lack of — was a common theme from both sides. Nearly everyone admitted things got out of hand.

“I thought the behavior of several senators was very disrespectful. During recess several people were discussing the bill in a huddle and I asked them why no one wanted to talk to us about our bill,” Pierce said. “Hamilton cursed at me then tried to apologize. Black students never receive respect and still are expected to always give respect.”

But Gold said the issue has nothing to do with race or discrimination. “It was said to me that I wouldn’t understand how Catt Hall affects people. That’s not true,” he said. “I’ve been affected by types of discrimination, not racially, in the past. Religiously I’m Jewish and it’s hard to be Jewish in the Bible Belt.”

Hamilton said senators should have acted more professionally. “If a student who had never been to a GSB meeting before they would have been shocked at the disrespect,” he said.

Terri Houston, assistant dean of students and adviser to GSB, is hoping Wednesday’s altercations are atypical of the Senate.

“We as a Senate were surprised by some of the activity that took place that night, disrespect to each other, lots of speculation, circulating questions came out after the bill had passed,” she said. “After amendment came out it jarred a lot of concerns and snowballed into some other issues.”

The issue will likely come up again at next week’s meeting. Hamilton has promised to introduce an amendment that would force BSA to return profits from the conference to GSB.

“I hope this is solved next week, but as we’ve seen before you never can tell what’s going to happen,” Hamilton said.