• MUSG allocated a surplus of $18,000 at their meeting Thursday night.
• The Senate gave $10,100 to Student Organization Allocations, $6,000 to the Programs Committee and $1,900 to the MUSG Communications Department.
• Senators debated whether money marked for excursions would be put to better use in SOA.

Marquette Student Government approved legislation to distribute an unexpected $18,000 budget surplus during its first spring semester meeting last Thursday night.

The Senate decided to give $10,100 to the non-club sports Student Organization Allocation fund. The MUSG Communications Department received $1,900 to purchase additional computers and software.

The remaining $6,000 was given to the MUSG Programs Committee.

The extra $18,000 comes from additional Student Activity Fee funds. The MUSG Budget Committee underestimated the number of incoming freshmen last year, resulting in more funds than had been expected.

The legislation, which passed with a 24-1 vote, resolves an issue from last semester, when MUSG was unable to decide how to allocate the funds due to low attendance. A two-thirds vote — 20 of the 30 MUSG voting members — is needed to approve budgetary legislation, and the item previously failed 19-1 at the Nov. 13 meeting.

The original proposal had an additional $1,000 given to the Programs Committee to fund excursions, such as a trip to the Dave & Barry's restaurant in Chicago.

An amendment sponsored by Senator Billy Doerrer, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences, moved that excursion money to SOA.

Where students would receive the most benefit from the money was a source of much debate.

"The money that comes in here is the students' money," said Senator Joseph Schuster, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. "Giving it to the SOA allows them to see what this money is doing."

However, Senator Kevin Mulligan, a sophomore in the College of Engineering, said the money would be more accessible to students if used for excursions rather than for SOA, which has a much more specific scope for who benefits from it.

Mulligan was the lone vote against the legislation.

In other news from Thursday night's meeting:

 MUSG President Ray Redlingshafer, a senior in the College of Business Administration, said Information Technology Services has worked out a system to punish people who use too much bandwidth and slow down Internet service on campus.

The new system would cut off users for a time period when found to be using too much bandwidth.

 Redlingshafer announced intentions to transition the tutoring program, which is currently funded by MUSG, to the university administration.

This would free up about $4,000 for MUSG to spend elsewhere, he said.