Illinois Student Senate members will discuss fund allocation for the biannual Association of Big Ten Students Winter Conference, a gathering for student governors at Big Ten universities, at their meeting Wednesday.

An ISS delegation of six senators will attend the conference at the Indiana University from Jan. 11-13. The student senate will discuss appropriating $823.90 for hotel rooms, gas and conference registration.

This will be vice president-external Ryan Young’s fourth time in attendance.

“It’s a good way for student leaders across the Big Ten to get together and share ideas (and) talk about any major issues that are occurring at the national level that we all need to get together to have a voice on,” he said.

Young said the conference will have a welcome session Friday night, 12 to 16 breakout sessions Saturday and a legislative session later that evening. At the legislative session, senators will discuss current issues their schools are experiencing. He said medical amnesty, referring to amnesty for underage students seeking medical care resulting from an alcohol-related incident, has been a widely-discussed issue across Big Ten senates. He said the University already has a policy for that, and legislation is currently moving through the student senate to further improve on the policy.

In other business, senators will revisit a resolution they tabled last week regarding the implementation of a student fee for the Illini Media Company, saying they were waiting for more information from the company before proceeding.

“We want to see where our money is going; we want to see a thorough explanation of why they need these funds before we move forward,” said Jim Maskeri, chairman of the academic affairs committee and senior in LAS, at last week’s meeting.

Brock Gebhardt, student body president, said he wasn’t sure about the direction of the resolution.

“It will definitely be considered tomorrow,” he said. “I think the language might change a little bit to clarify some language and correct any misrepresentations.”

Senators will also discuss a holiday donation program for Urbana children.

The senate plans to donate Illini memorabilia to the children as gifts for the holidays. Gebhardt said $1,110 worth of merchandise from the Illini Union Bookstore may be donated.

He said this donation is part of a partnership between ISS and student trustee David Pileski.

“We’re just joining in with his efforts to connect student organizations with needy children in Urbana to give them a little something for the holidays,” Gebhardt said.

Tyler can be reached at [email protected].