The Student Senate voted Tuesday to accept the finance committee’s recommendation regarding funds for SMU’s intramural program.

Representatives from the program had asked the senate for an additional $2,500, which would bring the total request amount to $10,000. Finance committee members insisted that the senate’s budget could not support the increase, and suggested staying with the original allocated amount of $7,500.

“The burden can’t be solely on us when we are experiencing losses in our budget,” senator David Archer said.

Senator Joseph Esau was a strong supporter of the additional funding and has a job with SMU intramurals.  He challenged those who were against the funding, which would be used for teaching to attract better referees, stating, “If you don’t know how it works, come out to paid training.”

President Patrick Kobler was also in favor of supporting the intramural program with the extra funding because it is a way for students to make friends and have fun without involving alcohol.

“Intramurals, in my opinion,” he said, “is one of the only things that’s effective and popular on campus.”

Students who voted against the additional funding expressed a concern for other programs that might not be able to have an event or host a program if it passed.

Donation announcements were made for the SMU’s Heart Beats for Haiti fundraising campaign.  Delta Gamma chapter president Alex Meaker and vice president of finance Lisa Dickerson presented a $3,500 donation, and President Kobler announced that $20,000 has already been raised for the Haiti earthquake relief.

As the meeting moved to old business senators voted to pass both items on the agenda.  The first was a resolution honoring Mrs. Deborah Michel, class of 1985, for a contribution to support student affairs and the Student Senate Scholarship Program.  Second was a resolution addressing communication between faculty and students regarding textbooks, which would help students who are trying to save money on class reading material.