While we applaud Marquette University Student Government for bringing in enough senators last Thursday to finally vote on what to do with a budget surplus of $18,000 from last semester, we were less than thrilled to see where they saw fit to spend the extra funds.

To clarify, the $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.

Senators voted to give the MUSG Communications Department $1,900 to purchase additional computers and software. When the Senate convened to vote on this last semester — and couldn't due to low attendance — this was not in the legislation proposed. After crunching a few numbers, it seems that this $1,900 was unceremoniously ferreted away from the Student Organization Allocation fund sometime between last Thursday and the original meeting on Nov. 13, 2008.

We were disappointed to see this change made from last semester without notification of anyone outside of MUSG. Anyone who cared to voice their opinion about the allocation of these funds was likely informed either by the MUSG web site or the Tribune's coverage of the matter last semester. As the MUSG web site does not yet include the agenda or minutes of last Thursday's meeting and the Tribune was not notified that any change had been made, clearly student feedback was not considered essential to this MUSG vote.

This incident highlights a need for greater transparency with MUSG. Students have a right to know exactly what their senators are voting on and when. Under the current system, meeting agendas and proposed legislation are sent from the Legislative Vice President to MUSG Senators prior to the meeting. Some agendas and legislation are posted on the MUSG Web site, but the timeline is sporadic and unreliable.

All proposed legislation and agendas should be posted on the Web site, and changes like the $1,900 directed to the Communications Department should be clearly noted. Had the shift been brought to our attention prior to last Thursday's meeting, we would have weighed in on what we see as a misappropriation of funds.

We take issue with the fact that the Senate is buying new computers for the Communications Department when we are still waiting on the new computers that Redlingshafer and Blaney promised us would go in the Alumni Memorial Union during their first semester leading MUSG. MUSG had a surprise chunk of money sitting around that they could have used to jumpstart the so-called "short term" goal of improving the AMU for all students. MUSG squandered an opportunity to finally get this job done.

MUSG has the power to vote on whatever they want to do with the student activity fee. But they should at least attempt to demonstrate some semblance of concern for what the student body thinks by making their proposals public before passing legislation.