WKDI representatives questioned Sunday the validity of a Student Association senate vote which denied the campus radio station of $5,000 in funding.

WKDI requested the SA to continue the funding for a contract with United Press International wire service. The senate vote was 23 to six against the funding. The number of abstentions was not ascertained.

WKDI Program Manager Marna Coldwater said SA Senate Speaker Tom Zur and Finance Adviser Todd Lipscomb “distorted the views (of senators) and had a big effect on the outcome of the vote.”

WKDI News Director Dave Weiner and Faculty Adviser Mike Lazar attended the SA meeting with Coldwater.

Zur said, in his report at the beginning of the meeting, “I don’t think we should get suckered into paying for it (UPI wire) again this year. We should look at how that money could help other organizations.”

SA Finance Adviser Todd Lipscomb said in his report, “My own feeling is that we were trapped into funding this in the past.” Lipscomb said 75 percent of the organizations funded by the SA operate on budgets less than $5,000. He said the WKDI staff “may have to work a bit harder, but it can still put on news.”

In response to the accusations by WKDI representatives, Lipscomb said he had stated his opinion about the request because it is his duty as an elected student representative. “I’m sure they (WKDI) thought I had a lot to do with the decision, but they (the senators) can make up their own minds,” Lipscomb said.

Lipscomb said the request denial “in no way means they will be zero-budgeted in the spring.” The $5,000 UPI wire was one item in WKDI’s $32,536 budget approved by the finance committee. The remainder of the budget will come before the senate this spring for approval.

In other business, DeKalb County Clerk Terry Desmond spoke to senators in an attempt to promote voter registration for the upcoming election year.

Desmond, who administrates the DeKalb County election process, works in conjunction with the SA to register students who have never voted before and voters who want to change their voting district from their home address to their DeKalb address.

Desmond said the ability to register a high number of students depends on the enlistment of deputy registrars who are responsible for the actual registration process. He will “swear in” deputy registrars at 5 p.m. Dec. 8 in Holmes Student Center Room 306.

e said 6,000 NIU students were registered in 1984 which “surpassed any other numbers of any other universities in the state.” He said he expects 1988 to show the biggest turnout of voters in the country, particularly those between the ages of 18 and 23.