The Undergraduate Student Government Senate passed a resolution Tuesday creating an ad hoc committee to investigate why it owes $3,300 to Document Center Services. South Halls Sen. Mike Jozkowski proposed the resolution because of a deal last summer to create more USG funds that resulted in a loss of money. Former Business Director James Meashey worked with Student Advantage during the summer, and formulated a plan to mail brochures from the company to Penn State students before classes resumed. Meashey said he mailed the brochures because he did not want to disclose students' home addresses to a company, but was under the impression that Student Advantage would pay Document Center Services for copying the brochures and envelopes. Instead, USG received a bill in November, a week after Meashey resigned because he felt hampered by the last senate's efforts to control his work, he said.

"How can we prevent an error like this from happening in the future?" Jozkowski said. "This concerned me as a new senator -- having this money gone and no one knowing why or how."

Some senators said the reasons for the lost money are already known and a further investigation would be unnecessary.

"This is being investigated for reasons I still don't know," Town Sen. Ryan Turley said. "It seems like a pretty simple reason why this (money) was lost."

Others opposed it for different reasons, saying Town Sen. Mike Gallo and East Halls Sen. Julia Graham, both members of the last senate, backed it for personal reasons.

Town Sen. V.A. Lopes said the proposed resolution was a form of revenge on Meashey. Several members of the previous senate personally disliked him, Meashey said.

The new resolution surprised Meashey, since senate never contacted him about the bill, he said.

"Wow. They could have just asked me," he said. Jozkowski denied that the resolution was part of a "witch hunt" designed to further punish those responsible for the bill, adding that senate could not do so even if it wanted. Gallo said the money was lost through malice or incompetence. The first draft of the resolution aimed at determining "specifically the party or parties who allocated the money" and whether the money allocated "by the determined party or parties was in accordance with the USG Constitution." It also sought "a course of action against the determined party or parties if ... (they) violated the USG Constitution."

The investigation will be conducted to further determine why or how the money was lost, but will not focus on the responsible party or parties, as originally planned. A series of amendments were enacted after senate members said they would not like the resolution to focus on individuals involved in the loss of money, but would still like to investigate how the bill was incurred so that a similar situation could not occur again.

"I'm not in favor of implicating someone," Town Sen. Sean Miller said. "I'm more interested in a fact-finding project."

The proposal to investigate the bill followed a resolution returning control of bus and calendar sales to the executive business department, which had lost that control to senate after Meashey's resignation.