Off-campus representative Dani Thoune said $164.19 was spent of the $305.70 budget to attend the Student Association of Michigan (SAM) conference last weekend at the Monday, Feb. 21 ASNMU meeting. ASNMU paid for gas to travel to Wayne State University in Detroit, but Michigan Technological University paid for hotel costs.

Thoune said the date of the Lansing Blitz was moved to Thursday, March 24. If a bus travels to the Blitz, students will leave the night of Wednesday, March 23 to rally, and return to Marquette Thursday.

ASNMU debated spending about $2,900 of its funds to send a bus of students to the Lansing Blitz. Thoune said she hopes to find 50 students willing to attend with students from all other state universities to rally for higher education. Thoune said other schools will send more students to the rally, but because NMU’s location restricts the number of students that can attend, it will send a maximum of 55 students. She said a bus would ensure more people would make it to the rally; students would be less inclined to go if they had to drive themselves.

NMU President Les Wong hoped to be able to fund the trip earlier this year, Thoune said, but Wong said he will have to wait to see how much will be cut from the budget before he can answer. He had not anticipated 15 percent budget cuts to higher education, Thoune said, so he might not be able to fund the trip.

Chair Drew Janego said out-of-state NMU students might not approve of paying for students to travel to Lansing with their money, because the rally will not really affect them. Janego said he encountered this problem last year and said ASNMU should be prepared to address this.

Thoune said though students might disapprove of sending ASNMU members to SAM conferences, paying for this trip would send NMU students to the rally, not only ASNMU members.

President Courtney Russell was unanimously approved to the elections committee.