• Marquette Student Government passed its budget for the 2010 fiscal year at its April 23 meeting.
• Seven senators were absent from the meeting.
• No changes were made to the budget, which gives 54 percent of total revenues to the Program Board.

Marquette Student Government passed its budget for the 2010 fiscal year with seven senators absent at the April 23 Senate meeting.

Legislative Vice President Adam Tandez, a junior in the College of Nursing, originally wanted to table the budget until next week's meeting because so many senators were absent.

Tandez said he was worried the absences would limit the amount of debate about the budget and hurt the budget's chances of passing. It needed the votes for 20 of the 22 present senators to pass.

However, after conversing with the other MUSG executive board members, he decided to go forth with trying to pass the budget, because if it was not passed this week, the Student Organization Allocations Committee would not be able to approve the club sports funding requests for the fall.

The deadline for club sports funding requests was April 24.

The vote was 21-1 in favor of the budget. Tandez said the absences were excused.

Senators did not make any changes to the budget and passed it after a half hour of explanations, questions and debate.

The only senator to vote against the budget was Abe Matthew, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Matthew said the process of crafting the budget needs to be re-evaluated and that more money needs to go to student organizations rather than to the Program Board.

The Program Board received 54 percent of the revenue from the budget.

Financial Vice President Jon Giel, a junior in the College of Business Administration, justified giving more money to the Program Board by citing a 2007 survey that found less than 50 percent of students supported funding off-campus student organizations and club sports events, while 95 percent supported funding on-campus events.

But nearly 70 percent of money given to organizations and club sports through SOA is spent off-campus, Giel said.

Most senators said they were satisfied with the budget, particularly the additional money designated for bringing speakers to campus. That line saw a $20,000 increase from the last fiscal year to $60,000.

"It's a budget that clearly reflects the voices of the students," said Senator Emil Ovbiagele, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences.