T

he Georgetown University Student Association senate voted Sunday to fund student attendance of academic conferences with student fee money.

The initiative originally proposed by the GUSA executive would have earmarked $2,500 out of theGUSA Fund — a council created by the senate two years ago to supplement the money student groups receive from their funding boards — for the purpose.

In the final bill, the senate voted to allocate a combined $12,500 to the GUSA Fund including up to $2,500 for students requesting funds under the ambassador program. However, the final bill also permits the fund to allot the money to other student groups if they vote to do so.

As part of their campaign platform last year, President Mike Meaney (SFS ’12) and Vice President GregLaverriere (COL ’12) proposed an ambassador program that would provide funds to help defray costs for students who want to attend conferences.

While the pair originally planned for the initiative to allocate $5,000, they decided to scale back their request to $2,500 for its first year. The bill proposed would also have allocated an additional $10,000 to be used expressly for student organizations.

However, many senators voiced concerns about whether the GUSA Fund was the correct outlet for such funding.

“Does it benefit students more broadly?” asked Colton Malkerson (COL ’13), chairman of GUSA’sFinance and Appropriations Committee, to open the debate.

Some senators noted that the GUSA Fund received several requests from students seeking funds to attend academic conferences last year, suggesting that there is a need for such an appropriation.

Senator Daniel LaMagna (COL ’13), said that he thought there was value in encouraging students to venture off campus for academic events.

“I think sometimes we’re too insular at Georgetown,” he said.

The program would require participating students to be sponsored by a professor or academic department. Upon their return, participants would share what they learned at the conference through a presentation and a brief that would then be posted on the GUSA website.

The senate also voted to amend the GUSA Fund charter to require that all of the fund’s allocations be approved by the entire senate. Senators said they hoped this would ensure more oversight for the program.