Senators voted 16-0-2 to approve all five of the budget allocation bills during the Student Senate meeting Wednesday.

Two senators abstained to vote because they were active members of the Apportionment Board.

Three nominees for next term’s speaker were also presented at the senate meeting.

Apportionment Board requested the release of $186,223 for the Student Recreation Center, $139,227 for University Board, $44,000 for Student Government and $40,560 for Apportionment Board. The total allocation approved was $410,010.

When it comes to the total allocation, $380,000 comes from student fee funds while $30,010 comes from the reserve fund.

Out of all, the only organization to not get a budget cut was Apportionment Board (it called for a $781 increase from last year).

“(Apportionment Board’s) entire budget is the entire salary of the secretary in our office (Laurel Fuqua) outside of paying into the group insurance for the university, which is a fixed cost, so we have no control,” said Zac Cohen, executive vice president.

Ethan Osborne, senator and member of Apportionment Board, said the first amount proposed to the Board was about $440,000 for a total allocation, but only $410,010 was as much money the Board could request, so the Board ended up cutting about $30,000 comprehensively from that original proposal.

Cohen said Apportionment Board cut amounts it deemed fit from each organization, with the exception of Apportionment Board, to make up for the necessary collective cut.

When it comes to student government, it is receiving a $6,000 budget cut.

Osborne said that cut comes mostly from exact stipends, but some of the amount cut also comes from limiting committees’ spending.

“We limited committee spending, too, because most committees don’t spend all their funds, so we cut $50 per committee,” he said.

Cohen said each committee had $200 per semester, but now it is down to $150 per semester, which saves student government about $400 a semester.

Osborne said students should understand the budget breakdown because the money to cover these budgets comes from student fees.

Cohen said the aim of the budgets is to serve the desires of the student body through paid services.

“The purpose of the money is to be spent to directly benefit students through activities and things for them to do, so it’s important for students to be the ones making the decisions how they want that money to be spent,” he said.

Senators Brianna Hogen, Michael Perri and Seth Yeakel presented to Student Senate, explaining why they believe they should be elected to next term’s speaker.

Osborne said next week, the senate will hold a primary election to determine which two of the three will be considered.

After that, the senate will have a discussion on the topic and vote at the meeting.

Student body president Rebecca Cash also announced the official results of the election during the meeting.

The following people were elected to be senators: Nathan Yisreal (85 votes) Brianna Hogen (159 votes) Randall Becker (99 votes) Iliana Ingram (73 votes) Michael Perri (60 votes).

Student body president will be Carson Gordon (270 in favor, 28 no confidence), executive vice president will be Kathleen Conlin (263 in favor, 33 no confidence), vice president for academic affairs will be Noor Ul Haash Khamisani (252 in favor, 43 no confidence) and vice president of student affairs will be Claude Abdoulaye-Pedila (269 in favor, 28 no confidence).

Inauguration will be April 24 at 7 p.m. at the Stadium Grill.

Logan Raschke can be reached at 581-2812 or at lrraschke@eiu.edu.